Sting
by smileyface120
Summary: A pikmin loses everything... Even herself... Join her and her friends as she tries to save the world, and herself.
1. Chapter 1

**Sting**

Chapter 1 Best of friends, kinda…

I wish I could be alone, from everybody, forever…

I was sitting down. Next to other colors. As usual… Not like I cared anymore. Although deep in my head I knew I still did. I knew I still wanted to run off. Or just punch someone in the face. Maybe they wouldn't notice my absence?

"Hey, Yena." I looked up. Reed, a red pikmin, was at the edge of the cliff. He was looking down at something.

"What is it now?" I got up, pushing aside some others. When I got to him he pointed.

"Over there. Green. Haven't seen something like that in awhile huh?" He said, pointing over at a distant spot. I looked where he was pointing. The tan ground suddenly stopped dead in its tracks at one point. And it turned green. A beautiful deep green. I stared at it with envy.

"Yeah, but that means more danger. And that means being closer together." He sighed.

"Yena, really. There's nothing wrong with being around your own kind." I ignored his words. The scorching heat beating down against me. Maybe we should…

"And there will be more food sources too." He added. I shook my head in disappointment over my own hopelessness of winning this argument.

"Fine, we'll head out..." I paused. "Tomorrow." He nodded.

"It's settled then." I sat down on the edge of the cliff. The wind was blowing over here, although there was no shade. The reds had no trouble here. Luckily for them they were immune to high temperatures. Unfortunately for me, along with the other yellows and blues, we felt like we might melt in a matter a seconds. I tried to think back to a time I was actually happy. But I didn't trace a single feeling like that.

"Yena, it's getting dark. We have to find shelter." I sighed. The stupid sun had to make all the rules. When it's up, we walk around in the heat. When it's down, we find shelter. The sun told us what to do. Like it was boss.

"Yena." I jumped up.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going." I turned around and followed everyone as we walked over to the cave we found some time ago. Maybe the cave just appeared to annoy me. Because I would rather sleep outside. But no, I had to stay close to everyone. I would rather jump off the cliff than do this every day. The scorching heat. The bossy sun. The annoying, freaky, pikmin. Everything sucked. That included my life. We turned the corner and went inside the cave. The dark, unpleasant looking, creepy, cave. The one with the drops of water. Ugh. Only the blues seemed satisfied with it. The yellows, we had no business even being in this stupid sandy land. Everything seemed revolting. Not a single speck of happiness filled our heads. The only reason I decided to leave this place. We went to the very back where the cave thinned so we could only fit through. Maybe… But there was one species that could get through. The ones that made me shiver, even through the scorching heat. A single thought of them made me nervous.

Luckily, the cave was colder than outside in the smoldering heat. So it made the night a bit easier to sleep through. Although barely any of us could get to sleep anyways. After what happened… We got to the part of the cave that grew again. And we all shifted apart and layed down. Although I was never alone. Even at night. Reed always layed right next to me. Best friends forever… The thought of that saying made me mad. I wanted to be alone. For just once… But the world had certain distaste for that. So it kept us together… Forever.

"Good night Yena." Reed said quietly.

"Yeah, sure." I turned my back from him. But he was used to my doing this. I closed my eyes. And went to sleep soon after.

_I was standing under our onion, doing my best to keep as far away from the others as possible. And then I heard it. Something that was going to change my life completely._

_THUMP_

_I stood up and looked around._

_Patter, patter_

_I had heard that noise before. The sound of those spotted bugs._

_THUMP_

_My stem stiffened, as if it knew what it was, but it was keeping it a secret from me. My ears stood erect. And my claws formed to fists. My eyes scanned the area while my feet stood stiff. There was no sign of movement._

_A small bark echoed through the air, which just made my body get stiffer. My ears twitched slightly. As if knowing where the sound was coming from._

_YIP_

_I jumped. The sound came from somewhere close. But then…_

_GRR_

_My face paled. And my stem seemed to lose hope, as it went limp. My ears turned slightly toward where the noise was coming from._

_Right behind me._

_I turned my head. But immediately regretted it. A giant spotted monster stood there, fangs out. But it wasn't red and white. It was black and red. And its lips were wrinkled and coated in multi colors. One that made me the most nervous was the yellow. The color of a friend. Or… the same color as my own blood. I took a step away from it. My fists tightening. My claws cut at my own skin because of how tight my fists were. I ignored the pain though. For I would feel much more pain if I didn't get away. The beast knocked the onion to the side, as if it were just a meager, useless, object that had no meaning. I stared in horror at the onion, which was tumbling out of the way. It twirled its flower to keep from toppling over onto its side. The beast noticed my worried look and stopped, its fangs still bared. The little ones behind it eyed the bigger one with confusion. Then the beast did something I never expected them to be smart enough to do. It walked over to the onion and head butted it. When the yellows nearby heard some noise they ran over. But it was too late to help. The beast had already knocked the onion to its side. And there was a sudden feeling of pain. A pain I would never forget. The pain was physical, yet mental at the same time. The pain of something very important is lost. But it was not the end of it. The beast was pleased when it heard whimpers. So it raised one stubby, yet powerful foot up above the innocent onion. A brave yellow walked forward. His fist clenched._

"_You wouldn't." He said, with a shaky, yet determined voice. The beast, though not understanding a single word the yellow said, slowly put its foot the onion. There was a shriek of terror. And then suddenly some more yellows appeared from the grass. They looked around at everything. Then their eyes set upon the onion. And they were suddenly overcome with fear._

_A loud sound of metal being crushed could be heard. Though we didn't care about the noise. It wasn't the noise that made any difference. It was the knowing that our lives were going to end. Because of a monster. And the sheer pain. The pain we knew the onion was feeling. And the thoughts buzzing through our heads. The monster took a step away from the, now crushed, onion and towards us. Me, and the ones who were actually standing on their feet started to run. Though most had gone into a state of pure thought. Not caring at all about their death. Because they knew it was over. They knew we would die eventually anyways. And so they lay there, thinking their lives over. It was a state that was common when pikmin lost something so important. And I myself was not caring about anybody around at the moment, said thank you to the onion. For giving me life. For giving everyone life. _

_Everything went quiet. And the soft humming flickered before stopping completely. My feet ran faster. I had to get away from here. Before it found us._

I was shaken awake… Reed was staring at me worriedly.

"You all right?" I looked around; the light from the sun was barely shining. It was early morning.

"Yeah, I guess. It was that dream again." He shook his head.

"You need to forget about that, get on with your life. We might just find another group of yellows. Then you won't have to worry anymore." He whispered.

"It's not the same." He sighed.

"I bet you'll feel a bit better if we do." He whispered, looking around at the other pikmin.

"You have no idea what it's like to lose something that important." Tears welled up in my eyes… not again… He wiped them off.

"Oh really? You don't think losing a friend is bad?" I shook my head.

"Not as bad as what happened to me. I don't think things will ever get better again." He stared me in the eyes.

"Don't say that. It just makes me lose hope. You know that." I pushed him back.

"You _need_ to lose hope. We have no hope." I hissed.

"Ugh, really, if you're gonna act like again I'm just gonna leave you alone." This happened before. My stubbornness. It always got in the way.

"Fine, I don't need you anyways." I wiped away the oncoming tears. He got up and walked to the opposite side of the cave, before he sat down, staring at me with annoyed eyes. I layed down on my face, so I couldn't see anything. And layed there until morning. Or, later in the morning I should say. And one of the blues shook me out of my trance.

"Hey, we've got to get going. I know you're upset and all, but let's go." The blues had their way of knowing the unexpected. It spooked me. How did they know so much? It's like they could read your mind sometimes.

"Yeah, sure, another horrible day." I said, though a bit muffled. I got up and followed everyone outside. Trying my best to not look at Reed, who was still eyeing me?

Outside was hotter than ever. The sun seemed be in a good mood, by the way it was shining, I would call it a bright mood. The heat seemed to be attacking everything. A lone bulborb was panting while walking along… How I wished to be alone, than I could make my own decisions.

"It's hot out here. I wish the sun would just stop shining for once, and then maybe we could actually have peace for once." I turned my head to see another yellow standing next to me.

"Yeah, it would be a perfect world, but what would be better is if we were alone." The yellow seemed confused.

"I wouldn't say that. Being with other pikmin makes me feeling… safer. Although after what happened… I don't think I'll ever feel safe." I nodded. Not about the part where he likes to be with others. The part where we would never feel the same again.

"Others just don't get it. They think we got it easy. We didn't. We got it tough. Tougher than tough." The yellow laughed a little.

"Yeah, they just don't know what it feels like to not have your mother." He said. I shrugged.

"Not like they care… Why did they even want to help us?" The yellow seemed lost in thought.

"I don't want to talk about that anymore. It makes my stomach spin." I looked ahead. The sunlight nearly blinding me. I hoped that today would end quickly. We made our way down the side of the cliff. Looking for a way down. And I saw it. Up ahead… A slope.

It was a good distance away. It would take about half of the day to get there. That was all right though. I really didn't mind wasting this day. This would make the day go faster… Or so I hoped.

About halfway there disaster struck. The ground exploded from beneath our feet. And we were all knocked back, nearly all the flowered pikmin lost their flowers. I looked around, ready for a fight.

Then I saw it. The bomb shooting monster, with an iron shield in the front, and two eyes poking out on its sides, staring at us as we scrambled to our feet. It had a blue fan-like tail that swayed side to side as it walked our way, making odd sounds as its legs moved. A pikmin to my left wasn't moving, or breathing. And I knew whoever it was had to be dead. A large spark was flying through the sky.

"RUN!" A blue screamed. And we all started to run as fast as we could from the flying thing. But it was coming down too fast. And we didn't have enough time to get away. We all went flying through the air, some flying off the cliff side. And then I saw Reed flying off the side. And I knew I had to do something.

I ran over and jumped off the side, not having a single clue what I was doing. And so I was soaring down with him. And we held hands, staring at the ground. That's when I realized my mistake. We were both going to die. I wasn't saving anyone. I looked around at the ground. Looking for something to land on.

A small little blob of red. It was moving, but I had no choice but to try to land on it. Because it was bigger than a pikmin. I had to take chances, risky enough, for my life. I eyed the blob, and positioned myself, and Reed, to land on the blob. As we got closer to the ground I could make out the blob.

It was a group of pikmin. Not just one, but a group. I had no time to move out of the way, and landed dead center on them.

A pikmin tumbled to the ground from the impact. And many others fell over as well. They helped a lot, there was just enough bounce to keep us from dying, and I landed lightly on my feet. Reed, however, landed flat on his face. I reached down to help him up. And then turned to face the shocked, yet curious, group of reds. A small change of color could be seen, and it caught my eye. A black pikmin was in the back, lying on the ground. He was shorter than a regular pikmin, and instead of a leaf, he had a ball. I stared at it. He got up quickly and looked around. Then two red pikmin turned their heads and looked over at him. The black pikmin backed away slowly. And the red pikmin quickly ran forward. But then I saw something I never expected. His ball thing started to glow; his eyes were wide, but with a hint of relief. Then he spun around and began to dash away faster than any pikmin I ever saw. The two reds stopped and turned their heads towards us. The one in the front sighed in frustration.

"So it's raining pikmin now?" I nervously looked up at the top of the cliff.

"Well, uh, you see, there is a monster up there," I pointed up at the top of the cliff. "And it blew us down here." I put my hand down.

"I see." The one in the front said, nodding. "But you let our, uh, captive get away, you see. He killed a few of my troops. And when we finally managed to get him well, you know." He said with a sigh.

"Oh, sorry, we just had to find somewhere to land, and you so happened to be the only place." He crossed his arms.

"Sure, I understand. But will you please move? We have an important matter on our hands." I looked down at the ground in thought.

"Do you need any help with this… errand?" I asked, surprising myself by how generous I was being. He smiled.

"Actually, you might just be able to help. Not a lot, but a small bit." I smiled.

"Thank you. This will make up for my, um, injuring one of your men." He looked over at one of the pikmin, lying on the ground. He wasn't dead, just lying there. The red pikmin in the front seemed like he was about to laugh, but kept a serious face.

"Actually, you have no idea what you're actually getting into. This is serious business. If you want to risk your life then go ahead." He said. I really had no idea what I was getting into. Even if it didn't involve risking your life, I still wouldn't have known what I was getting into. I thought I wanted to be alone. What was wrong with me? I wasn't myself… Did the blow from the beast hit my head? Still… I wanted to be alone, but my head was swirling, and it wanted me to help. I tried the best to ignore the fact I was going nuts.

"Could you move?" I quickly walked out o the way. Reed followed me with a confused face. I knew why he was probably confused. I wasn't acting like myself. Well, although the inching to the back and trying to keep as far from everyone as possible.

"What's your problem?" Reed asked.

"What do you mean?" He crossed his arms.

"Being… nice." I laughed.

"Um, I really don't know. Maybe it's a side effect?" He glared at me.

"Side effect? What do you mean?" I looked into the air.

"I think those clouds look a bit grey… Don't you?" He waved his hand in front of my face.

"Hey, you all right? You don't look right… You look… Funny..." I blinked.

"My head is spinning, it's not my fault." He nodded in understanding, but stopped shaking, only to have his face be replaced by skepticism.

"Spinning? What do you mean?" I shrugged.

"My head is… Weird, like something is asking me to come to them. And it makes me want to go that direction… It's too hard to describe." I said. He gulped.

"Uh, did you know that your color can sense things better than others?" I stared at him.

"No, does it make a difference about anything?" He stared at me worriedly.

"It makes a big difference. Do you have any idea what direction it's asking you to come?" I blinked. It was coming from the direction we were going.

"Who?" He stared at his feet.

"You know what. Which direction? It makes a huge difference." I looked ahead.

"It's coming from-

Suddenly we stopped. Reed and I both looked ahead. And then gulped. There it was… The mushroom... The one that many pikmin whispered in fear.

That's… who I was talking about." Reed said in a shaky voice. My head felt weird… It was spinning with faint voices. But of who? And what were they saying? I took a step back.

"And that… was also what was making you act weird…" Reed finished.

"Uh, why does this make any difference about my attitude?" He grabbed my arm.

"Because the air is filled with its… spores." I knew what he was talking about. This was the one… that did that thing…

"Why aren't we… you know what then?" I asked.

"Because it's not enough, but if we get anywhere under that thing… Let's just say it will have enough to do you know what." Something was trying to pry into my mind, killing one thought at a time, but it stopped at a point. Like it couldn't go any farther. Like it was too weak. Too puny, just like me.

I shook my head. No, I couldn't let it get into my mind again. I had to kill it. And then I could leave them and find somewhere… alone. But I just stood there. Waiting for something to happen.

And something did happen… The red in the front took a step forward. And the mushroom took two steps back. What a coward… It had the guts to do something many pikmin feared, but didn't have the guts to stand firm in its place. The red pikmin, seeming entertained by this, took two steps forward. The mushroom started to dash away, but it didn't take long at all before the mushroom tripped and rolled over onto its head.

"NOW!" He screamed. And all the red pikmin (not including Reed) ran forward, and then jumped up on it. I hesitated for a second, gathering my courage, and ran forward as well. Reed followed close behind.

It felt awkward when I grabbed onto it. Like I shouldn't be doing this. But I was doing it anyways. What my inner instincts wanted me to. Because they told me to…

My personal feelings however were being ignored. I wanted to run away and hide. The knowing someone could get… changed. I wanted to have just left. Not asked to help… But Reed said that wasn't my fault. What if it was? What if I was just nuts? If I was losing my mind.

Suddenly I was shaken off, not landing far away, and looked up at the structure of the mushroom, as it stood there. Maybe it wasn't such a coward… Maybe it wasn't at all. Maybe it was. It confused me to think about this. And didn't notice when I was being pulled away.

"Yena! Get up and run! Listen for god's sake!" I was pulled away from my thoughts. I quickly got up and looked over at the mushroom, which towered above us. Standing boldly and proudly. It curled up its mushroom top and held it like that for just a second. And finally released a large purple smoke. It drifted closer and closer. I started to run. He looked at me worriedly.

"We've got to get out of here. Who cares about them?" He said.

"No." I put my hand over my mouth and nodded. He grinned.

"Alrighty." We started away from them, but suddenly we were knocked backwards. A… explosion?

"Hold on… Is that thing following us?" Reed asked, pointing up at the beast. The one that got us down here in the first place. I held up a fist.

"When I get done with that stupid thing… it'll wish it had never even seen us." I said, shaking my fist at it. Reed sighed.

"We can't even get up there. Unless we keep going all the way to the slope. But that's pretty far away now. It would at least require all night if we don't stop." I hadn't even noticed what time of day it was. But it was dark, and it made me a bit nervous.

"Let's turn around." He stared at me like I was a moron.

"That thing's back there." Suddenly a bright light shot through the air. We rolled out of the way as it hit the ground, dirt flew into my eyes.

"Can I ever find any peace?" Reed shook his head.

"One day, but for now. Let's put that question aside." Another light shot through the air, but we were already scrambling to our feet and running. Where were we running you ask? We were running the direction of the mushroom. Because we weren't thinking at the moment. We were just running. In the direction… that we just so happened to be running in. But then we stopped soon. And knew one thing… Running this direction… was a pretty bad idea.

The two monsters were ready for their moment. The one on the cliff… It had its cannon out. But it wasn't firing yet. The other monster… It had its mushroom top curled up. The reds that had been battling it were backing up. Ready to retreat. Other bodies layed on the ground, dead. Some were not red. But a purple color, with a single mushroom topped on their heads. Body parts were inching forward… An arm grabbed one of the red pikmin's legs. It tried to jerk him to the ground, but, it wasn't strong enough, all it did was make the red start kicking and yelling. A leg twitched on the ground… I couldn't help but be creeped out by this… When a pikmin is still moving, even when it is supposed to be dead, you know that this has someone making it do that… I didn't see the red pikmin I had talked to earlier in their group. And the survivors were shaking with fright. Reed had my arm grabbed and he took a step back…

It was a horrible mistake. The cannon monster from up above shot out a bright light. And I knew what their plan was. Reed had let go of my arm in desperation, and began to run. But I stood there, in a state of shock. And it hit me. Well, not directly on me, just behind me. Although that sent me flying forward. Right underneath the other beast. And purple smoke flew down and covered my body. And everything began to tingle and my body began to shake violently. Then everything began to fade…

Something… Or… Things… entered my head and began to dig themselves in my mind. The pain was unbearable. I searched franticly for something, or someone, to help me in the fog. But I couldn't see anything, and searching hurt my head… My eyes stung, and I gripped at the ground below and screamed out in agony… This was never expected, never… I wanted to hurl all this anger at the monster… But, I couldn't… Not when…

Not when…

Not when I was surly lucky to be changed… Because life before sucked, and now everything was gonna be okay, right? I was gonna have a happy life… And everything was just perfect… I should be glad to be like this…

So, I should just close my eyes, and let my mind wonder… And then… everything will be… okay…

**Alright, I can already tell this story is gonna be lame… GRR!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 Change of plans**

I woke up… But I didn't feel the same. I felt… mad. And frustrated. But when I tried to get up I felt something on my waist. And it was tight. I turned my head.

I was tied to a large pole… I tried to reach down and untie myself, but my hands were tied too. I was stuck. Instead I looked to see where I was.

It was… green. There was a patch of grass nearby, and it made my mouth water. I sensed something there. I wanted to go and pluck it so I could get something to eat. But in my condition I wasn't going anywhere. Why was I tied up? Then I saw movement nearby. And something black following something red. I stared at the colors.

The red color seemed to be running from the black. But then the black jumped onto the red. And the red fell over, dead I believe. I couldn't see what the colors were because my vision was blurry. The black color lifted up the red and began to take it away. No… it was three blacks. Then they disappeared. I stared as they left. And then I remembered when I looked at my waist. I hadn't paid very much attention.

It was purple. Not… Whatever I was before… I looked back over at it. I tried to think back to when I wasn't… this color. And then something clicked. And I remembered.

I quickly brought my stem to the front of my head. And the most surprising thing in my life just so happened to be in front of my face. I stared at my… mushroom. A small wave of fright washing over me. I knew what happened. I knew I wasn't myself anymore. But it just wouldn't sink into my brain. This couldn't be happening. This was all just a dream. Nothing ever happened. I would wake up and be just fine. But my mind kept telling me no… Or maybe it wasn't my mind. Maybe it was someone else's.

Suddenly something black was walking towards me. And as my vision cleared I could see it was a black pikmin. He seemed a little tense while he was walking towards me.

"So, are you awake? Uh, what did they tell me to say if you were awake?" He seemed to be talking to himself. I stared at him.

"Okay, I forgot. I admit it. But then… How to prove it…" He trailed off. Murmuring something under his breath.

"Do you want to kill me?" I didn't say anything. That was the most stupid question I had ever been asked.

"No, that wasn't it. What was it?" He had a ball on the top of his head. And it was bright. Like, glowing bright. And he seemed a little jumpy.

"Alright, I give up. I'll just tell them that you're awake and, uh, they'll do the rest. No, they told me to do it. I'll just assume the safe way, not like you have feelings." He walked over to me and kicked me in the stomach, hard. I flinched, and tried to hit him back with my mushroom.

He was quick. Too quick. He was so fast I almost couldn't tell when he started to run backwards. He stopped a safe distance away.

"Not smart enough yet to figure out that it's no use trying to kill pikmin? Really, you should know that trying to bring harm to us does no good at all." I was frustrated, what was he talking about? I never tried to bring harm to anyone…

"Where am I?" I asked. The black pikmin seemed a bit skeptical.

"I know your ways. Playing dumb so I let you go, thinking you aren't being controlled. You know what, we're not that stupid." He said, with a big frown on his face, like I just insulted him.

"Really, could you tell me where I'm at?"

He sighed. "Sure, but I'm not gonna let you go. You're in forest's peak."

I continued to stare at him. "Where's that?" He put his hands on his head.

"You should know, because you came through here. Oh wait; you're not a pikmin… So you don't name places." He looked around.

"I am too a pikmin!" I argued.

He laughed. "Yeah, sure. A mushroom pikmin. No wait; you're not a pikmin… You're just acting like a pikmin." He started to turn but tripped on a rock.

"Gah! I've always been so clumsy, it's not fair… Nobody else is!" I watched as he got up and stared at me. "You didn't see that." He said, and began to walk again. I layed there and watched him leave, but then he turned back around and said one last thing. "You're going to die… alone." I was alone… Like I always wanted. My whole life. But… why wasn't I happy? I watched as he picked up a rock and chunked it in my direction. It landed right in front of me. I didn't even have to dodge. He huffed and started to walk away again. Muttering under his breath. And so I was alone.

Being alone didn't feel like I thought it would. Being alone felt… Dangerous. I didn't feel happy. I don't think I will ever be happy.

Days passed… Lonely, silent days… I became weaker and weaker as I lost strength from the last time I drank nectar… Which was probably never… I never remembered drinking nectar… So why did I crave it? I didn't even know what it tasted like.

It was getting close to afternoon a few days later when suddenly a rustle behind me was heard.

There was a cyan pikmin. And she was walking my way. But she didn't see me. Yet. She had a leaf. And her leaf was not green like a normal pikmin's. It was a deep blue. She was looking to her left, and she seemed to be in a hurry. And then when she got really close she looked at me. And screamed.

She jumped back. Her stem straight up. But after staring at me for, what seemed like forever, she relaxed and stepped around me. Still eyeing me. And then she looked concerned when she saw I was tied up.

"Do y-you need any help?" She asked, still staring me in the eyes. I didn't say anything, afraid I might scare her more if I said anything. So I just lightly nodded.

"I-I'm not gonna help y-you though. You might hurt me. And maybe you might even kill me. H-How can I trust that you aren't that monster thing?"

I slumped my shoulders and dropped my head. I knew nobody trusted me. "Because you just can. I promise I won't… hurt you." She seemed a bit nervous.

"Actually, if I help you, will you help me?" I nodded a bit more enthusiastically. She crept forward a little bit. And stopped right when she got a distance I could reach her, just to make sure. After a few seconds she walked forward a bit more and inspected the knots. The she reached down and untied me.

It loosened and I gasped in the air, falling to the ground. I could breathe better. She took some steps back as I got up. And she stared at me nervously. I stared at my waist. It was bruised from the knots being so tight. She started to walk away, but then turned to wait for me to follow. I wondered if I should turn around and leave her. I started to but then stopped and turned my head to look at her.

She seemed a bit mad. But still stood there and waited, like I had a choice. I finally chose to follow her. And a slight smile spread across her face. When I got over to her she held out her hand. I stared at it. But then I finally shook it.

"Name's Kutona, but you can call me KT. What's your name?" I thought about that.

"I don't have a name." I said, a bit sadly. I didn't remember having a name. Did I have a name?

"Oh, that's sad. A nameless pikmin." She started walking. I followed her.

"Where are you going?" I asked. She sighed.

"Away from the others. I want freedom." I wondered what it was like not to have freedom. But then again… I felt it earlier.

"Why do you need help?" She shrugged.

"I lied. I just wanted someone to walk with me. Even if it is a traitor." How was I a traitor?

"What do you mean by… traitor?" I asked. She sighed.

"Nothing… Just some time ago when the alien visited this planet." Alien?

"How was I a traitor? I didn't even know an alien existed." She sighed again.

"It was when it crash landed… And found us… And used us… He found the mushroom. And it infected some of us. And then you're kind… should I even think of you as another type of pikmin? Because you were once actually a color. Anyways, so you guys attacked him. I don't know why. But you did. And so I thought of you guys as a traitor. Because you backstabbed your leader. And tried to kill him." When I heard the word leader it made me feel strange. Like a bit mad. But I ignored it.

"Doesn't mean I'm a traitor." I hissed. I felt like turning around and leaving… or punching her in the face.

"It does… to me." She seemed a bit sad.

"What's wrong?" I asked. She looked up at me.

"Oh, he just… Left us. He… backstabbed us as well." I huffed.

"Then why don't you call him a traitor too? And that gives me one reason I would try to kill him." She glared.

"Because… he helped us as well. He taught us what working together means." She said. I crossed my arms. I would still call him a traitor. And I would still punch him in the face. Why? Because the sound of alien made me mad. Or maybe it was the sound of leader… We passed a large berry stalk. She stared at it. I ignored it.

"Still gives me a reason to punch him."

She huffed. "See? I just don't get why you guys want to do that stuff. It's like you're programmed to." I ignored her and paid attention to my own thoughts.

No… They weren't my own thoughts. They were somebody else's. And it sounded mad. Because it didn't like the alien. I wondered whose thoughts they were. Were those thoughts the reason I'm mad? I looked at the pellets we passed. Some were black, some were blue, and some were yellow. They were very tall. And I had to crane my neck in order to see what color they were. Suddenly I was pulled away into a bush. I stared at KT. She had a worried look on her face and motioned for me to be quiet.

We watched a black pikmin pass by, followed by four more. They ignored the pellets and kept walking. And moments later they were all walking back with a small spotted beast. And they were going faster than I thought they would. Almost as fast as a running leaved pikmin. KT watched them pass by and we stayed in the bush for a few seconds after they left before she let go of me. Probably because she knew I was gonna jump out and try to hurt them. She started walking again. I followed. Relief flooded her features. We stayed quiet for awhile.

"I suspect those were the pikmin that tied you up?" She said, interrupting the now odd silence.

"Yes, I think. I really don't know. But one came over to me when I woke up."

She stared at me. "Ah, just as I thought. Why did they tie you up?"

I shook my head. "I already told you, I don't remember." She sighed.

"Oh, well… What did he do?"

"Tripped. And kicked me. And threw a rock at me. He has a clumsy arm though."

She laughed. "That doesn't sound like a black pikmin."

I stared at her. "Well, he was." She looked around.

"I think we're close to their camp. We should be quiet."

I grunted. "Yeah, sure, you're the boss."

She glared.

"Shut up. Or we'll both be in trouble."

I huffed, trying to get all my anger out. My eyes at least showed it. They were strangely always in an angry position. But I shut my mouth, knowing she had a reason for this. We turned left at a point and went into the tall grasses. So we could go past their camp without being seen.

At one point when I looked over I saw their camp. Many blacks were around there. Laying down or sitting. Some were working. Others were looking around, for intruder's maybe, or monsters. KT seemed very nervous. And kept looking around. I, however, had one plan on my mind. If any black pikmin spotted us and came over, they would die. It was harsh, yet true. The thoughts in my mind still hummed angrily about the leader. I ignored them though and thought about keeping up. She was going pretty fast.

After we passed KT exhaled. She seemed very relieved. We kept going though.

"When are we stopping?" I asked.

She turned her head towards me. "I have no idea. Maybe until we pass out."

I looked away. "That's not a very good plan. I don't like walking." She rolled her eyes.

"Well, we're gonna keep going." I started to poke my mushroom out of plain boredom. Wondering if I should walk away.

When the sun started to set I grabbed her shoulder. She jumped.

"We should find shelter. It's dangerous in the night." She nodded tiredly. And then looked around.

"What would be a good place for shelter?" She asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. Somewhere that nothing can find us."

She stared at me. "I guess. Where would that be?"

I sighed. "I already told you, I don't know."

We continued to walk and look around. And finally a cave took shape in the distance.

"Over there." KT said with a smile. We walked over to the cave. It was pretty big. And as we walked in we saw a light coming from somewhere. We looked each other in the face. And then continued on. Not knowing if it was dangerous or not.

As we entered the small room that was lit up KT gasped. I didn't. But I was still shocked.

Pikmin, three colors. Red, blue, and yellow. All of them scarred or wounded. They layed around a fire. They looked up at us, and then their stems grew stiff. A red one, who was in better shape than the others, stood up.

"What do you want?" The red pikmin asked.

My mushroom grew tense. And my hands balled into fists.

"We," I pointed towards KT. "Are looking for a place to stay for the night. And this place just so happened to be here." I said. I brought up a fist. The red seemed a little uneasy.

"I am not sharing a cave with a mushroom pikmin." The red hissed.

"Well _you_ do not own this place do you?" I said taking a step forward. KT grabbed my arm and kept me from going any farther.

"Looks like you have no choice. Please, both of you. Keep calm and don't make a scene. The other pikmin over there don't want to see you dead." KT said softly. The red crossed his arms.

"And what makes you think I would die?" I tried to pull my arm free. But she wouldn't let go. So I just had to do with staring at him.

"I don't want to prove it. Because that would require you dying." KT remarked. The red glared at me.

"I would like to see you try to prove your point." He said with grin. KT hesitated, but let go of my arm. Before I could land a punch she grabbed my shoulder and whispered in my ear.

"Don't kill him, he doesn't deserve it." I grumbled, come on, I just wanted to land some punches and hopefully make him regret everything, still staring at the red. And then I noticed he had a flower. Most likely the reason he was boasting. She let go of my shoulder and let me go. I walked forward slowly. And stopped right in front of him. Waiting for his move.

He threw a fist at me. I sidestepped it and whacked him in the side with my mushroom. A very powerful hit. He stammered to the side to recover. But I had already brought my foot to his face. He back flipped. But landed on his feet. He walked forward. Before I could punch him again he stuck his foot out and tripped me. I fell to the ground. He brought his foot down to my head. And pushed…

An excruciating pain flowed through my head. And I heard a slight pop. I screamed. He grinned and pushed harder… Unfortunately for him, he wasn't paying attention when my foot kicked him off his feet as well. I quickly got up. Ignoring the dark purple blood coming from my stem and kicking him in the face multiple times. He tried to kick me down but I jumped over his stem. The other pikmin seemed a little frightened by how fast it all happened. The red pikmin finally managed to get up and punched me in the face. Then he grabbed my stem and pulled at it, hoping it would rip off.

I punched him in the stomach and he let go of my stem, which was now limp. But it worked. Although a bit painful when I moved it. I whapped him in the side of the head and he fell over. Then I started to hit him with my mushroom even when he was on the ground. He groaned. But then went limp. KT ran over and pulled me away. So I wouldn't kill him. I was mad though, and my head was shaking with anger. I tried to pull away, but she didn't budge.

"Does anybody _else_ want to have their point proven?" I hissed, and they all cowered in fear. KT was frustrated.

"I thought I told you to _not_ try to kill him." I kicked at her legs, but it didn't help.

"Let go of me, I want to finish the fool."

She sighed and looked over at all the frightened pikmin. "Will someone help me tie her down or something?"

A couple of guys nodded and got up. Some of them ran off to get something the others helped her keep me from getting over to the red pikmin. The ones that left came back moments later with rope-like stuff. And they moved over to the wall…

I kicked and yelled as they tied my stem to a tall rock thing that stuck out from the floor. Then they all stepped back from my struggling self. And seemed satisfied. KT walked over to everybody and tried to calm them down. I stared at them all… A red pikmin in the back of the group looked at me sadly. I stared at him until he looked away.

KT was a backstabber. It wasn't me. It was her. She didn't let me kill him. He was a fool. He deserved to die. I was sick of her. I was sick of this place. I was sick of my life. I sat there, staring at them all. Until I fell asleep.

_I was under the water. Drowning. And then I noticed, I wasn't in the water, I was drowning in smoke, as it filled my body, as it tweaked my brain, as it changed my leaf to a mushroom, as I began to lose control of myself, and when the smoke cleared I saw a red pikmin standing over me. And then he looked frightened. And tried to back up. But I reached up and grabbed his throat. He pried my hands away from his throat and backed away; I stood up and walked towards him. And he began to run. I stood there a second. Then I gave chase. The other red pikmin had already gone. This one was the only one left. And as we both ran, the surroundings changed. It went from a hard sandy area to a green soft floor. I ignored the change though, and still chased. But then he turned the corner. And when I turned, he was gone. I stood still for a second, eyes darting here and there. Then I started to walk forward…_

_And then my body began to shake. And I knew what was happening. I tried to step back. But it was too late. I went limp and my body sprawled across the ground. My eyes were still open. And I could still feel myself. But I just layed there. And I waited for something to change. My muscles were still tense. And I was still thinking. The only change. I could control myself again. But I didn't want to. That wasn't what my life was meant for. So I waited for it to come closer. So I could go back to what I was doing. Without it I wouldn't be able to survive. But after what felt like eternity I lost hope. It wasn't coming. I needed to get up and go myself._

_Before I could a black pikmin walked by. He stared at my body and shrugged. Then he lifted it up and began to head back. I didn't do anything. After staring at him for awhile everything went fuzzy. And finally black._

**Yay! End of chapter! Yeah. Yeah. Weird dream. Weird fight. Weird chapter… Weird **_**story**_**… Heh, KT handled that situation pretty well… Or this story would have a dead red. And probably some other dead pikmin as well. Crazy, lunatic, rude, selfish, umm, and scary… To other pikmin. Wow, the main characters got some issues. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 Freak**

I woke up, lightheaded. And yesterday was strange. I didn't remember very well. Because something had taken over. But it was mostly me. I could control myself. But my mind was racing to fast. And I mistook the other thoughts for my own. Although the words I was saying weren't my own. And I finally admitted it. I was a freak. I looked around the cave's room tiredly. The pikmin were asleep. But one of the reds was awake. And then I noticed he was the one I almost killed yesterday. He was staring at me. And when he noticed I was looking at him he looked away quickly. He seemed a bit confused about something. KT had her body sprawled out on the ground. I swear I saw drool out of the corner of her mouth… Two yellow pikmin seemed to be having a nightmare of some kind. They tossed and turned. A red pikmin with a leaf kept murmuring something under his breath. A budded blue was lying next to KT. And he was smiling in his sleep. I blinked.

"Uh, sorry about yesterday." The flowered red pikmin whispered. It startled me. I quickly looked over at him. He was walking over to me.

"Sure, but I'm not saying sorry to you. It's your fault I'm tied up in the first place." I was tired of being tied up… He sat down next to me. I turned my head away.

"That's the reason I'm saying sorry." He said.

I grunted. "I'm still not saying sorry. Because you had the choice to fight me or not."

The red pikmin scoffed. "You wanted to kill me even before I said anything." He said.

I huffed. "You shouldn't have stood up in the first place."

"Why are you even here? And why were you with the cyan girl?" I shrugged.

He sighed. "She saved me. From the black pikmin I think." He looked at me curiously.

"Black pikmin?" He asked. I stared at him.

"Yeah, the black pikmin. The ones with the balls on their stem?"

He blinked. "Uh, I don't remember seeing any black pikmin. But I can understand if they hurt you." He said with a grin. "But they sound gross too…" He mumbled to himself, frowning.

I held up a fist. "Do you want me to prove a point again?"

He gulped. "Sorry. I need to work on shutting my mouth." He said.

"What's your name?" He asked.

Ugh.

"I don't have a name." He looked disappointed. But then held out a hand with a smile.

"Oh, well my names Eden. Nice to meecha. Kinda…"

I shook his hand. "And the yellow over there," He said, pointing at a yellow pikmin that was tossing and turning. "Is Yeralla. And the blue over there," He pointed to a blue who seemed in deep sleep. "Is Atlanta. She's pretty nice." He looked back over at me. I was staring at Yeralla; she stopped tossing for a second, but started again.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked.

He shrugged, like it was nothing.

"She's just traumatized by what happened to their onion." He explained.

"Oh, I guess I wouldn't understand. I don't have an onion."

He looked at me sadly. "Neither do white, purples, or greens." I stared at him.

"Really, then how are they made?" He laughed.

"Definitely not from weird monsters like you are." He looked away from me for a second and snickered. Then he looked back over at me. "They're made from flowers." I stared at him like an idiot.

"Flowers?" I asked.

"Yeah, big giant flowers. And if you jump in one you get turned into that color. Although there are every color. All those colors have onions though." I crossed my arms.

"So what if I jumped in one?" He looked at me, confused.

"You get turned into a different color. What difference does it make to you?" I shrugged.

"None, just wondering."

"Actually, there is one that I heard from myths that if two different colored pikmin jump in it mixes their colors together to make a completely new one. Or just a regular one. Like if a red and blue pikmin jumped in it would make an orange pikmin." I continued to look away.

"What if a mushroom pikmin and another color jumped in?" I asked.

"Uh, I don't know…" He said. Humph, some flower. Not even making something for a mushroom pikmin. Suddenly I was startled by a groan, and a yawn. I looked over to see Yeralla sitting up tiredly, yet her eyes were wide open. She looked scared. Then she looked over at me and Eden, her eyes darting between me and him. Then she got up and slowly walked over.

"Morning, I guess." She said, more to Eden then me.

"Morning, get any better sleep than last night?" Eden said. She nodded.

"A little, but still not very good." She answered.

Eden laughed. "I could tell. I guess we might as well get up. Um, and do something."

Yeralla nodded. "Yeah. But what do you want to do?" Eden seemed deep in thought.

"First let's untie her." Eden said. He walked over and untied my stem. It slumped in front of my face. I stood up and pushed it behind me. I looked at KT, and then walked over to wake her up.

"Wait. Let her get some rest." Eden said. I stopped and nodded. We walked out of the cave. The sun was at the edge of the horizon. Morning…

"That's nice." Yeralla said. Eden nodded, I didn't really do anything. I was tired. And wished I could go to sleep. But I would probably have that weird dream again.

A faint outline of black could be seen in the distance. I stopped and looked at it as it passed by. The grass blocked most of our view. Eden and Yeralla looked at me.

"What's wrong?" Yeralla asked. I shook my head.

"Black pikmin… I've got to stay away from them." Eden looked around.

"I don't see any black pikmin around." I sighed and started walking again, they followed soon after.

"I've never heard of black pikmin. Why do you have to stay away from them?" Yeralla asked.

"Because they were the ones that tied me up. I think they did… And KT saved me from them. So they are probably looking for me." I answered, looking around for any signs of one.

Another black line passed by, and Eden noticed it this time too.

"I have a feeling if they find you with us nearby we would be in trouble too." He said. Yeralla looked puzzled.

"Why would they do that?" Eden looked at her.

"Because they would assume we are helping her." He said.

"Actually, you are helping me." I said. Yeralla snickered.

Two more black lines passed, no, they were the same lines. Just heading back. Yeralla noticed and seemed a bit nervous.

"I think we should head back. It's dangerous out here. Why are we even out here?" She said.

"Because we should find nectar, then we can have food. So we can eat. And get some more for the other pikmin too." Eden said. That popped up an idea in my mind.

"Where I woke up… There was some nectar." I said. They both looked eager.

"Do you know where you were tied up?" Eden asked. I nodded.

"But we have to be quiet, and sneaky." Yeralla seemed to be a bit more nervous.

"Why? Is it near the black pikmin?" She asked. I nodded.

"Of course. Plus we have to pass their camp too." I said. Yeralla whimpered.

After the sun was partly in the sky we got near their camp. I signaled for them to be quiet. And did what KT did. We passed through the grass. And looked at the pikmin nearby.

There was a group near their onion. I listened in on their conversation.

"No, it probably got away from another pikmin. And that other pikmin is probably another mushroom. We have to find them both, danger looms over us all." The black pikmin in the center said.

"But they probably went back to the monster. It makes no sense why they would stay around and wreak havoc." A pikmin surrounding him said.

"It makes total sense why they would stay and cause havoc." The one in the middle said, turning to the pikmin who protested.

"Why would they stay then?" Another black from behind him said.

"Because the beast cares nothing about their puny lives. It would make them stay to hurt others, like I already told you earlier." He said, turning towards the pikmin behind him.

"Yes, but why would it not care about them? If it did it could make a bunch of pikmin, and then strike against the other colors with many pikmin." The same pikmin that had asked the question before said.

"The main reason it makes them stay. So they can capture other colors and bring them to the monster." The one in the center said.

"And plus they aren't that smart either." He added. My hands balled up into fists. I would show them who was puny, who was smarter. I could walk over there and knock him out right now. Eden was covering his mouth to keep himself from laughing. Yeralla looked truly scared, half of her face covered by her leaf. We passed by their camp and relaxed a tiny bit, but we still didn't dare get out of the tall grass yet. They followed me until we got over to the spot I was hoping to find.

The sun was high in the sky. As we forced ourselves out of the grass. I walked over to the grass that earlier I had been drooling over. And I began to pull at the grass.

It was harder than I thought. And when it finally came lose I fell over onto my rear. Luckily a yellow liquid seeped from the ground. I grabbed a little a sipped it up. Eden and Yeralla ran over and grabbed some too.

The taste was wonderful as its warm sugary liquid flowed down my throat. I sighed and grabbed a little more. Then I stopped myself and grabbed another grass shard. I pulled hard.

It came out easier than before. Maybe because I was kinda weak from hunger before. Eden and Yeralla helped.

By the time all the grass was plucked the sun was starting to set. We all sat there, panting. There was plenty of nectar. But the problem… We didn't have enough time to get back. I stood up and grabbed as much as I could. And looked around. Yeralla stood up and grabbed a bunch too. Eden followed her example. I started to walk the direction I first saw KT.

"Where are you going?" Eden asked. I turned my head.

"We've got to find shelter for today. We can head back tomorrow." I answered.

Yeralla nodded and started off with me. Eden stood there for a second, but after it got awkward he hurried after us.

I looked around. This place seemed oddly familiar. And then I remembered that it was from my dream. Odd… I didn't remember being here before.

Thinking everything through since me... Changed... made me realize just how fragile my memory of before was, I didn't remember my name. I knew I was with someone, but not who... And worst of all, I remembered the tragedy…

Speaking of that, something Eden said before popped in my mind, and it connected. My eye widened in shock.

I swiveled around, nearly dropping the nectar in my hands.

"Wait, earlier, you said that Yeralla was having nightmares because she lost her… onion… right?" I asked, he nodded slowly, and I slowly turned my head to Yeralla, who was looking down at the ground.

"I remember… I remember that…" I said, she looked at me quizzically. "Because I was there, I was the one that could have stopped it, and I didn't! I can't believe myself, letting everybody down, killing lives, and worst of all, that onion, the one that made you… Even… Me…" I said.

I didn't realize I was on my knees, the nectar dropped on the ground, and that I was sobbing uncontrollably until Yeralla grabbed my shoulders with wide eyes.

"S-So… you remember that? " She asked, her voice strangely calm.

"How could I forget? Even after I turn into a monster… After I turn into a murderer, how could I forget about that? It stands out so much, so well, and the only reason I haven't said anything is because I pushed it out of my way… But I shouldn't do that, because I was right there. I was the one it saw, and I could have called for help, I could have, but I didn't…" I screamed, she shook her head.

"Stop taking the blame, when we got there, nobody tried to fight, nobody did anything. We just stood there and waited to die…" She said, and then hugged me.

"That means that I was with you all while we were traveling. And that means that I found you guys again, I found… My family…" I said, she hugged me tighter. Eden just stood there, shocked.

"B-But we double checked to make sure if anybody was alive after the attack, and… Nobody ran off, or got left behind. How could you have been with us?" He asked. I looked up at him, and racked the memories up in my brain.

Now that I knew that I was with them, it became clearer, I remembered being with a certain red, but I don't remember his name, and there was some explosion, then I remember jumping down a cliff of some sort to save somebody… No, wait… It got all fuzzy again.

"I think I jumped off of… Off of… I remembered just a second ago!" I said, pushing my hands up against my forehead, squinting, trying to remember what I just remembered. But it wasn't working, I cried out in anguish. Yeralla, no doubt, was the one patting me on the back.

"It's all right; you don't have to remember little details like that. At least I know that you got lost along the way and now I have somebody who actually knows what I feel like." She whispered in my ear.

But I knew she still didn't like me. She wouldn't ever trust me in a million years…

"First that, then I get turned into a monster, and all I can do is sit here and watch!" I cried, she shook her head.

"Everything happens for a reason, a reason we have to find out. We'll find out sooner or later, please, stop crying." Yeralla said, clutching my hands. I nodded and slowly got up, then she hugged me, Eden blinked.

"It's getting dark, we better start going." Eden said, and we started off.

It wasn't long till we found a rock that sloped to create a miniature cave. We stayed there and, with a little trouble at first, fell asleep.

**I'm sorry, but this story is getting more stupid as I read it… Write it… Anyways… Hope it's not as stupid to you guys as it is to me… :( **

**This place is****, well, according to Olimar, ****Forest Naval.**** Sorry about the difference in the actual game and in this story, as I only got pikmin 1. I am on day 3.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 Memories**

I woke up to see that it was already light outside, and when I got up, Yeralla was missing, but not Eden.

"Yeralla?" I called out in a hushed voice, not to wake Eden.

Nobody answered, and so my mind started jumping to conclusions. Did other mushroom pikmin come and take her away? Did some monster eat her? But if either of those happened, Eden would be missing as well.

She probably is just sitting outside, because she couldn't sleep well, and she was just fine, but too far away to hear me calling her, well I _was_ being really quiet.

I slowly got up and poked my head out, to see if she was there. When I turned to the right I saw her, or at least I _think_ I saw her. I couldn't tell, but assumed that the tiny bit of yellow I saw disappear into the grass was her, and the rather _tall_ grass to be said.

I hastily made my way over to follow, because who knows what could be in there?

When I poked my head through, I was relieved to find it really was Yeralla, but was startled by a new face, of a red, he was sitting on a log, shivering. And he seemed awfully pale.

"Do you need any help?" Yeralla asked him, and his face was oddly familiar, so I made sure to hide. He looked up at her, just staring at her, like the question she asked him was hard, before shaking his head.

"No." He said, and she crossed her arms.

"You're _dying_! You need help!" She argued. I stared at him, trying to remember where I saw him.

"I want to die though. She's gone, because of me… And I could have grabbed her and we could have run away, but I let go of her and now she's… she's… gone…" He said, the words almost brought tears to me. Funny, because I wanted to die too… But for a different reason.

"Yeralla? Do you know him?"I asked, completely forgetting that I was hiding for a reason. Because as soon as I stepped out, he fell over unconscious.

"Hey! I thought you were asleep! Now look what you did!" She yelled at me. I crossed my arms, not caring about stupid words anymore. I had enough of the 'hey, I don't want you to even exist.' Thing.

"You know what? I hate you! I hate Eden, Kt, everybody! I just want my life back, and all you guys do is yell at me, like I don't belong. Like what you said yesterday was a lie! You make me feel like this didn't happen for a reason! You make me think that I'm just some screwed up pikmin!" I yelled, and before she could stop me, I started to run. Run as far from them as possible, as far away from life. Even trying to run away from myself.

"Wait! Don't go, I-

_Forget it, forget life, wake up tomorrow and start over, wake up and_-

I stopped running and slowed, now my tears were all gone, and I realized something.

_He said something about letting go and running without someone._ I thought. And a vivid memory showed up, it had a red pikmin letting go of me to get away from something in the cliff, and… my creator…

I grabbed a rock and chunked it as far as I could, it went very far, the grass was not growing right here, and just ahead was a lake…

I walked forward, and leaned over the water, then looked at my reflection. Not the reflection of the yellow pikmin I once was… A stranger… A stranger that ruined my life… A stranger that was me…

But then that memory popped up again, and I stiffened at the sight of it.

"Wait… That doesn't mean it's him…" I mumbled. But the memory was just too much, bugging me no matter how hard I tried to keep the thought away.

I had to prove it wasn't him.

I couldn't believe myself. I was turning around and running back over there, even though I just said I hated Yeralla, and everybody else, which was true. Because I hated myself too, it was only fair.

When I stepped back over to the place Yeralla had been, she was gone, as well as the red pikmin. I cursed at myself for leaving them because of my poor control.

I walked on until I was near the spot we had slept.

Nobody there either.

I cursed at myself a lot more now.

They left… great…

I started off to where we were when we got the nectar. When they weren't there either I started over to the cave. But then after a few seconds I started jogging, then I was sprinting as fast as I could.

When I got to the spot near the black's camp I turned and watched silently, creeping past them now.

And when I saw who was with them I nearly passed out.

Great, they were sitting there being held captive...

I just stared at them as they were being held there against their will, the black pikmin held up weapons at their necks. The red one, I guess he finally left with her, and also woke up, didn't seem any bit frightened. His face was blank, and he just stared at the black who I by now could tell was their leader.

"Now, now, it's nice to have some friendly visitors here for once, huh?" The black pikmin said to them, Yeralla spat on the ground.

"Let us go, we were only passing by." She said, Eden nodded.

"Yeah, we didn't do anything!" He said. All the blacks, who now seemed a little bit on the lunatic side to me, laughed at them.

"What do you want?" Yeralla hissed. The black pikmin laughed.

"Besides seeing you guys dead, nothing." He said, and then his eyes turned into razor sharp. "We don't like trespassers around here, and you guys were on our land. So now… I get less trespassers _and_ some entertainment. Seems like a win-win to me." He said. And I, having enough of his stupid 'murder = happy' thing, burst out into view, surprising everybody.

"Let them go, or I'll make you." I ordered. Yeralla just stared at me, with joy, and sorrow. I swear a small speck of hope showed up in the red pikmin's face. Eden gasped and looked ready to collapse with happiness.

"Hey, no name! Just in time!" Eden said, I gave him a look that said _shut up, because I'm pissed right now_ looks. And the black pikmin holding him gripped tighter on his neck.

"Oh, you're that mushroom pikmin that decided to just go off on some vacation, aren't you?" The black said, I grinned.

"It wasn't really a vacation, it was more like, moving out." I said, causing him to shift from the lack of fear on my face. "Now let them go, before you suffer the consequence." I said, his eyes turned to the ones he put on before when he was talking to them.

"You're not my boss." He said, I laughed.

"Same to you, mister "oh look, she's unconscious on the ground, let's pick her up and keep her as a pet", really, you seriously get on my nerves." I said, he looked around, like he didn't know what to say next.

"How did do you know that? You were unconscious. But then… That means that you're possessed, and that means… I've got total right to kill you. Because you just want to turn everybody into a zombie." He said, suddenly looking like he just said the smartest thing in the world.

"I am _not_ possessed. I just… had a dream… About what happened…" I said, he sighed and rolled his eyes.

"And why would she save us if she was possessed?" Eden argued, at least he was on my side.

"Because… it would want us to be just like… her…" Yeralla said, almost sobbing. I turned to her and shook my head, almost about to cry myself.

"I'm so sorry about earlier… Really, you don't know how… how… _hard_ it is to be… me… I just, I just had to get it out… I had to let out all those thoughts bubbling up inside me. Please, forgive me." I said, she only stared at me like I smacked her.

"No, I would never forgive someone like _you_," She said, and the black laughed.

"Losing friends already? Didn't even take your apology, I like this vibe coming from her." He said, then turned to Eden. "But you, you need to work on this stuff. Better yet, why not just watch him die?" Suddenly the black holding Eden brought his spear straight through Eden's stomach, and he dropped to the ground, hopefully not dead.

The other red looked up at me, then he did something that made me totally change my mind about what he was like.

He pulled his way loose of the black holding him and punched him in the face, temporarily knocking him out. Then he went and tackled the leading black to the ground.

"Kill him! Now! Before it's too late!" He screamed at me. The black just stared at this all, stunned.

Just like I was before this happened…

"I-I can't…" I said, taking a step back. The red glared at me.

"DO IT!" He said, making me actually take a step forward. I stared at the black, his shocked face, expressionless, but I knew that he knew that his life was going to end.

I just couldn't, it reminded me too much of that moment, that moment that my life was changed, turning into something horrible.

_Do it!_

The thoughts that weren't mine were mad at me. They were mad because I wasn't killing him, and I was wasting time. The blacks were coming closer. Holding weapons, and fast.

"DO IT!" He said again.

The black pikmin were now getting really close, and they didn't look happy.

I ran and pulled the spear out of Eden's back, then I quickly brought it down on the black's head.

And then the whole world froze.

I just stared at everybody, it was as if I was the only one who could move. And everybody else was just a statue.

A tear slid down my face as I looked at the black, who was dead, and it was my entire fault.

And then suddenly the world started back up, and the red was kicking and screaming, arms grabbing him, keeping him from moving, and more black pikmin were headed my way.

I ran forward and knocked down the blacks holding the red, and then I grabbed his arm.

But when I turned Yeralla stood right there.

"Why? Why are you trying to ruin my life?" She asked, spitting the words out. I pushed her out of the way and ran as fast as my feet could take me.

This was a nightmare.

We got as far as our feet would allow, then we collapsed to the ground, the surroundings were very different.

There was snow on the ground, and it took me a second to notice it. My head was throbbing with voices. I looked at the red. Who was lying on his back, staring at me.

"What's your name?" I asked him, he paused for a second.

"Reed." He said.

The name was so familiar, but I didn't know why.

I sat up, now shivering, but I didn't feel the cold. There were trees towering in all directions. And it took me a moment to soak it all in.

We literally had to drag ourselves in order to get underneath the tree, which held back the wind.

Reed stared at me, but he wasn't shivering like I was, he actually seemed fine here.

"They're after us now, and when they find us, they'll kill us." I said, he shrugged.

"I don't care…" Then he paused and stared me in the eyes. "You make me feel different. Like, as if I was actually with Yena." He said, and that struck a chord.

Yena… The name seemed familiar, but in a different way, not like a familiar pikmin, but just… A name that seemed to fit into somewhere…

"What was she like?" I asked, he looked at the ground.

"I have to admit, she was pretty stubborn. But that's why I liked her, and I wanted so bad to help her right when I met eyes with her. After some time, we just kinda stuck together all the time… But then… I let her… change… And ever since then I've been trying to move on and forget what I did. But it just won't stop bugging me…" He said, I frowned.

"You make me remember things that I forgot." I said, making him look up at me. "Like when I wasn't a monster, and there was this onion, and then it broke. I remember that very well, but when I saw you, and you blacked out, and I ran away to the pond, you made me remember when I got changed." I said, making him blink.

"What happened before you got changed?" He asked me, I turned away. Then I turned my attention to the memory.

"There was this cliff… And this monster… And I was so stupid, I didn't run… I just stood there like a freaking idiot…" I said, and then opened my eyes and looked at him.

"What color did you used to be?" I crossed my arms.

"Yellow, why? What difference does it make? Because I'm not that yellow pikmin anymore… I'm a monster now…" I said, looking at the ground, my eyes getting heavier. Reed's eyes brightened.

"What was your name?" He asked, I stared at him.

"I-I… Really… don't know…" I said, he frowned.

"Oh… ok…" He said, looking utterly disappointed.

"W-Why did you want to know?" My eyes were getting heavy, and I could tell his were too.

"Because I think you might be my… best friend…" His eyes slowly closed. And so did mine… Soon enough I was fast asleep, all traces of my fears and worries that they might find us gone…

**HA! 4 Chapters… CHECK! YAY! So, I'm starting a forum on Sting, so you might want to check it out. You can talk, ask questions, talk a little more, get character info, stuff like that. Also, you can expect the next chapter about 2 weeks from now.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 King of Anything**

We trudged on, looking for anyone else… Only the two of us now… Well, three, technically.

I tried to ignore the thoughts filling my head, but they were cramming my mind, and it was giving me a headache, a bad one. Reed started to notice.

"What's wrong?" He asked me.

I shook my head. "Nothing… I just… It's nothing…" I had to squint to keep from yelling out in pain.

"Are you sure? It doesn't look like nothing…" He mumbled.

I stared at him with big eyes. "What's wrong with me?" I covered my mouth as soon as I said it.

He took a step back. "Nothing, it's not your fault that you're like this…" He said, I shook my head, clutching myhead_._

"We really need to turn around… I can-

_Feel me? Yes, but don't turn around… Keep going, I'm waiting…_

"You can what? Hey, listen to me… What's wrong?" He was right next to me, I stared at him.

"I can feel… Feel it…" I choked out, his eyes widened.

"Oh, we need to turn around, or go around, anything but keep going… It's a good thing you're here." He said.

That's the first time I'd ever heard "good" and "you" in the same sentence.

"I-It's trying to get into my mind…" I whispered, he shook his head, and started pulling me back.

"Don't let it in your mind, come on, we need to get out of here…" He said.

_Don't listen to that fool… Listen to me, because I'll make all your worries go away, I'll make everything be all right… Nobody likes you out there… But I do, and I want you to listen to me. So all your worries will vanish…_

I started tugging at his arm, but he turned and tackled me to the ground.

"Don't!" He screamed in my ear, but it was barely audible, all I could think about was that all my worries would go away with it… My master… The one who really did care about me…

There was a sharp pull from in my head. I screamed out in pain, the unbearable pain.

Another sharp pull brought on a lot of darkness. I tried to get out of this pikmin's clutches, but he punched me. I could barely see anything. And everything was fading from me…

Another pull was all it took to bring me into complete darkness.

…

I woke up, feeling dizzy, and I felt like hurling my guts out. I moaned and tried to sit up, but I was overcome by dizziness and layed down again.

Suddenly Reed poked his head in front of me. He looked worried about something.

"Awake?" He asked, I groaned and turned my head away.

"Yeah, but I regret it." I mumbled, he paused for a second before continuing.

"I found some more pikmin around, they were as lost as we are… And so we joined up." He said, I stared at him.

"Why did you do that?" I asked, he looked at me with confusion.

"Because, only the two of us is dangerous… Plus, they helped me…" He paused. "From probably dying…"

"What? How were you gonna die?" I said. He looked at me and frowned.

"Because… Because of you…" He whispered, I blinked.

"B-But… How? That's not possible! I was…" I stopped. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't be!" He said, shaking his head. "It wasn't your fault! None of this is your fault!" He stayed quiet for a second. "Do you want to know? You don't have to, if it-

"Tell me…"

He sighed. "Well, you woke up… And, well, you stumbled around a lot… And, well… I didn't say anything, because, well, I don't know… And then I met up with them, and you… Well, there's this other mushroom pikmin with them, and then he looked ready to scream, and he said that you were possessed, and then you got really mad and you tackled me to the ground and started punching me, and then the mushroom pikmin with them tackled you to the ground and the green pikmin ran over to you and kicked you really hard in the head…" He said in a big rush. I noticed that he had a few bruises on his face, they looked like they hurt.

"I'm so sorry…" I whispered, and then groaned as the world started spinning again.

"What's wrong?" He asked, I looked at him and groaned again.

"It's nothing, I'm just dizzy…" I said, he laughed.

"Well, I would expect that… You kinda have an injury where she kicked you…" He said, I reached up a hand and felt the spot that hurt the most. I winced at the sharp pain.

Suddenly a mushroom pikmin walked up. He glared at me for a few seconds. Then he turned to glare at Reed.

"Do you realize how stupid you are? Can you not tell when somebody's possessed? You're lucky I was there, because if I weren't, you would be dead!" The mushroom pikmin started screaming. Reed shrugged.

"It doesn't matter _that_ much… I mean, she didn't attack me _until _you said it_…_"Reed said. A green pikmin walked up to us and stared at me. She had two stems… And they dropped down almost to the ground.

"Is she… herself again?" The green asked the other mushroom pikmin. He looked at her and nodded.

"I'm Blade…" She said, and held out a arm. I shook it. "Sorry about the injury. Can you stand?" I prodded at the spot.

"After you kicked me so hard, I don't know if I'll ever stand…" I mumbled. Alarm raised in her eyes.

"How do you remember?" She asked, Reed laughed.

"Oh, she doesn't remember! I told her!" He giggled, Blade rolled her eyes and giggled too.

"For a second I thought we had some lunatic with us…" The other pikmin growled.

"Sorry, he's not very social…" Blade said. "Although I think that most mushroom pikmin are those ways… And let's say that he got a lot of that junk in his head… God, you should have been there… He was breathing that crap and coughing it up and throwing it up and all sorts of stuff!" She said. I blinked.

"You saw him before he was… changed?" I asked, staring at her. She shook her head.

"No, I found him like that, and he was coughing and puking and-

"Okay, I get it…"

The other mushroom pikmin glared at the ground.

"Life just hates me… I mean, why do I deserve all of this?" He growled.

"Ha! When I was yellow I got my onion destroyed… Think I felt happy about that? No, and then, to make things worse, I got changed into a monster! Think I'm happy about that? Heck no!" I said, he glared at me now.

Yeah, well, When I wasn't this, I was brutally tortured by a group of cyans! At least you had one bit of happiness, because I've never felt it! In fact, I don't think I even know what it feels like to be happy!" He hissed.

I glared back at him. "You know you both have been through a lot, so stop trying to put all the pity on one side… In fact, I could use a little pity too…" Blade interrupted.

"I think we all have been through a lot… Nobody needs pity… Because we've all got troubles…" Reed agreed. The other mushroom pikmin relaxed his glare. I did too.

"Fine… But life still has issues…" He mumbled, and turned away, slowly trudging away from us. He looked up at the sky, like something was wrong with it. I ignored the sky and turned to Blade.

"Sorry, he… well, he's really had a horrible life… If he ever gives you the details of before… You would understand… Mushroom pikmin are supposed to forget their past, but, it's odd, you two remember… Actually, you two only remember the most traumatizing times..." Blade said, and then smiled. "I know! The mushroom does that to make you want to be with it, because, if you only remember the horrible parts, then you would think that it's better to be with it…"

"Yeah, but I still don't want to be with it… I don't ever want to… That'd be stupid… It's trying to use me, make me its puppet, and I'm not gonna ever let it…" I said, crossing my arms, not even noticing that I was sitting up until the wave of dizziness overcame me.

I held my hand up to the spot, wincing at the pain, Blade laughed nervously.

"Sorry, I was… Trying to save Reed… And, well, I was only thinking about how _it_ was going to kill him, I wasn't thinking about how you would feel afterward… And, just telling the truth, mushroom pikmin make me… Intimidated…" She smiled uneasily at me.

And I knew she didn't trust me, she just said it, but not it the same words… Nobody did…

It was odd how the presence in my head didn't respond to that like normal… Actually, it didn't do anything… Normally, I would feel like I was laughing at myself when I would think something like that, but…

Nothing…

"Where is it?" I accidently said out loud. They both stared at me with confusion, the other mushroom pikmin stopped walking and slowly turned to me around to look at me.

"Where is what?" Reed asked, I looked at him and chewed my lip. Could I tell them? Or would they just think I only cared about the mushroom and ditch me?

"The mushroom… I-It's…" I decided to lie. "Where is it?" Well, technically, it isn't a lie…

"Oh, we've gotten a good distance, it's not far away, but it's not close." Blade said, the other mushroom pikmin squinted at me.

"I know what's wrong…" He mouthed. "It's not in mine either…" He turned back around and stared at the surroundings.

"Huh, and you're still not happy yet? You know, nobody's gonna feel sorry for you with _that_ attitude…" I whispered, even though I know he couldn't hear me. Blade stared at me.

"What?" I hissed at her, she looked at the ground.

"Sorry…" She mumbled, and then turned to the other mushroom pikmin. "I can't believe I put myself through all this…" I heard her whisper under her breath.

"What's the real problem?" Reed asked, grinning. I stared at him.

"What do you mean, 'the real problem'?

"You didn't just want to know where it was… You want to know something else, but you won't tell us…" He said, crossing his arms. I frowned, how did he know?

"It's not here anymore…" I tapped my head. He looked confused.

"So? Isn't that a good thing?"

"It feels… Empty…" I said, he laughed.

"I was about to ask if you lost your mind, but… I guess you did!" He giggled. I frowned.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, he grinned at me, and tried to stop laughing.

"You said it's empty, so I guess that means you lost your mind…" He said, I glared.

"That's not very funny…" I said.

"I'm sorry, but it kinda _is…_" He said.

"I'm being serious… It's important… Because I don't normally feel like this…" I growled, he stopped laughing and got serious.

"Why do you think it's gone? Because it's not telling you to do stuff? Like, murder me?" I glared.

"It doesn't say that kind of stuff… You don't understand… It… makes fun of simple things in life, and makes them seem very important… It makes me hate life… And it makes me think that things with it would be… more simple, and better…" I mumbled, Reed seemed sad.

"What kind of simple things?" He asked. I looked him in the eyes. His jaw seemed a bit tight…

"Like, how you are now… I can tell that you don't like my presence… But, it's not making things all huge… It's not making fun of me… It's not telling me how stupid I am to be hanging around you guys… It's… Not doing _anything_… And it's uncomfortable… It makes my head feel… empty…" I said. He frowned.

"I don't hate you being around!" He said. I rolled my eyes.

"You don't hate my presence, but you're not okay with it either…" I mumbled, he sighed.

"Fine, whatever… Believe what you want to believe…" He stared at me. "But you're wrong… You give me whatever bit of hope there is left in this world… That's not gonna change…" He said. Blade was walking back.

"Can we go now? This place gets really cold, so we should keep moving…" She said. I sighed and tried to stand up. With a little luck, and a lot of nausea, I managed to get my feet moving.

That's when I noticed it…

It was so faint; I could barely hear it… But it made me stiffen in alarm.

_Help… me…_

I searched around frantically, and I don't even know why… Because, well, I knew that something was wrong with it. Sure, I hated the damn thing, but, _I _wanted to be the one to kill it, not some other stupid pikmin…

_Fading…_

Reed walked over to me with a worried expression.

"What's wrong? Is it back?" He asked. I gulped.

"A little… Um…" I squinted my eyes shut.

Where are you?

_I'm stuck… I… Can't… Survive like this… _

Where are you stuck?

_I've been… captured by… a group… Of… Green pikmin…_

"Where are the green pikmin?"

Oops, I said that out loud…

"The green pikmin? They're farther north… Why?" Blade said, frowning. "But, we have a rule you know… Mushroom pikmin aren't allowed to be there… I don't find it a very good rule, but it's to be on the safe side… We don't want anybody getting hurt…" She added.

The voice was fading, and I couldn't make sense of the words anymore…

"We should go there… I don't care what the rules are." I snapped. She flinched.

"Okay, but how are we gonna sneak you guys in there?" She said, the other mushroom pikmin started walking over to me.

"What's your secret plan? You don't know what they would do to us if we get caught in there… It's execution… Immediately…" He whispered, but instead of seeing the usual anger I saw in him, he showed grave fear…

I didn't know if I should tell him. What would he do, would he tell them, just to stop me?

_N…o…_

I stiffened in alarm again. Was it answering me? Or were the green pikmin doing something to it?

"I'm saving the mushroom. Because it's dying…" I whispered back. His eyes widened in horror.

"What?" He hissed. "Why would you do that?" I crossed my arms.

"Because I seem to care about that stupid thing…" I whispered. He looked a t me, plain fear showing in his eyes. I guess that he was different than I thought… He wasn't that angry bully that he showed earlier, he was someone who's had quite a rough life…

"Fine, but you realize that it's dangerous in two ways… First, the mushroom could- Wait… Did the green pikmin isolate it?" I nodded. His eyes widened. "Oh god that means that it's gonna die… Like, if it's been that way for awhile, then it's in serious pain… I don't know if we'll make it…"

I couldn't believe that I was actually gonna try to save it… The thing that ruined my life… The one that's _still_ ruining my life…

And I couldn't believe that the other mushroom pikmin was actually okay with this… At least, a little okay with it…

"We can just find another way in…" I said… And then grinned. "Or we can just knock them all out…" She blinked at me.

"Why do we want to go there anyways?" She paused. "They don't really trust me anymore…" She said. I frowned.

"Why not?" I asked. She pointed at the other mushroom pikmin.

"Because of him… Well, it wasn't exactly his fault… It's the mushroom's… I was with him, and then…" She stopped all at once. "I can't go on, it's too hard… I mean, I can't believe that my own kind hates me!" She looked at the other mushroom pikmin. "Well, I guess I understand what you guys always feel like…" She smiled nervously. "But you've got it all worse, I should feel lucky… Other colors are fine with me… Nobody trusts you guys…"

I felt the need to trust her… I don't know why… But I did…

Pain was shooting through the other mushroom pikmin's eyes. He stared at the ground, like it was his enemy. He looked ready to cry and punch somebody in the face all at once.

_Don't… stop… keep… going…_ The mushroom pikmin barely whispered. I gave a short whimper before pulling myself together and getting serious again.

"They'll forgive you…" I said. She stared at me sadly.

"No they won't…" She quietly said.

_They… will…_

We started walking again.

"I know they will… I promise…" I said. She smiled at me, although it was nervous and way too vulnerable…

"No you don't…" She argued, her voice cracked in the middle.

"She might… Because… Well, because…" The other mushroom said, looking up at her, pain still in his eyes, but smiling slightly.

"Okay, we'll try…" She peeped. And we all started off…

Okay… This was not what I expected…

"They built this?" I asked for the millionth time. Blade nodded, looking even more solemn than before…

It was like a cave… Made out of stones, but… Different… It rose up very high. With 'windows' on the walls and a huge 'door' in the front. The knob was golden.

Ivy grew on the walls all the way to the top. It was so beautiful… And I wasn't allowed inside…

"So, what's your sneaking in plan?" Blade asked, looking at me flatly. I sighed. Oops, forgot about the breaking in part… This sucks…

"We'll talk it over… You guys can go inside…" The other mushroom pikmin said. Blade started to walk forward, but then turned back to him, like he had to go with her. "It's all right, if they try anything, Reed will be there… And if I go in there with you, they're going to freak and not forgive you… Remember, they didn't kick you out, you ran…

She nodded and quietly started walking again. She grabbed the door handle and turned it very slowly. Then she looked at Reed and they both walked in.

After the door closed the mushroom pikmin looked at me.

"I know a way in…" He said, smirking. I frowned.

"Already-

"I've known it for a long time…" He interrupted, looking toward the door, drawing in a shaky breath, he turned back to me. "But we need to knock out the guard's right there… Before they can warn everybody that we're here…" He said.

"And when did you find out about that secret way in?" I asked, he shrugged.

"Long story short, I had to find a way in because I was with Blade… We got caught though, but we can still get in there…" He looked up at the sky, which was getting dark. "I didn't get caught there… It was when Blade and I went into the Creatures Isolation chamber… That's when things get fuzzy… I don't know why we went in there… But, well, there was… the mushroom… And then… There was that guard with the… spear… Oh, I can't remember…" He paused for a second. "Blade told me, well, after she saved me, that is… That I had helped break it out of there… And then she had to travel all the way up with me, well, secretly… Just to save me." Tears were spilling from his eyes. "I can't believe she would do that… Why would she go through all that trouble just to save someone like _me?"_ He said. Then he sniffled and got serious again. "It's in the back… There's a window that leads to a storage room… It's always empty, and the ivy is climbable… But there are guards around the back too… We'll have to knock them all out before we can get in…" He shrugged. "They're not that strong for guards… Seriously…"

"Okay… Knocking out guards is fine… But, what about when we get inside? What does that storage room lead to?" I asked. He paused for a second.

"I don't remember, but I guess we'll find out." He said. I grinned.

"Let's go…"

We were hiding in the bush, there were three guards, but they were all talking to each other. I could probably walk up to them and they wouldn't even notice… Not that I was gonna try…

"Okay… Ready?" The mushroom pikmin asked, I nodded.

We both walked over to opposite sides. Then he gave a signal with his hand and we both jumped out.

It was easy; we surprised them, and then knocked them all out. They didn't expect a thin.

We started climbing the ivy. And I looked over at him.

"Which window?" I asked, he pointed at the window that was in the middle.

We climbed through the window into the dark room. I felt uneasy in here… I could hear the voice better… But not much…

Boxes filled the room. I didn't know what was in them, but I ignored the growing curiosity and looked at the other mushroom pikmin.

"Okay, now we're inside their… place-

"Building… I know, they're really weird… Pretty smart actually… This can withstand even the worst storms… They don't have to worry about getting washed away… At least, unless it gets too bad…" He said, staring out the window and up at the sky. I looked up at it for once…

No wonder he was staring at the sky earlier. It was a dark grey. And the wind was picking up. I looked at him.

"How long has it been like this?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I don't know… But I can already tell it's gonna be bad…" He said, and then turned away from the window, and walked to the door. He put his ear to it, and then opened it.

We stepped out slowly to a long hallway, littered with doors of all kinds… I looked at the mushroom pikmin, he smiled at me.

"We're officially inside." He said, then he closed the door behind us, and turned left, then he started scanning doors and running his hand along the wall.

Instead of feeling the need to run away because we could get caught any minute, I was enjoying this. The place was just the right temperature. I could feel a burning sensation in my hands, which were numb awhile ago.

The floor was made of wood, and, unlike the wood I usually saw, this was shiny and I could see my reflection in it. I felt chills run through me as I stared at myself, so I looked up at the walls. They were stone. All the stones were shaped in perfect squares, and they all stacked on top of each other. They were packed tight with white stuff, which looked hard, it all fit together like a puzzle. And it made it seem oddly comforting. I didn't get it, I should fear this place, for the fact my life could end any second.

He grinned and opened up another door. Then he poked his head through and stared for a second. He pulled his head out and looked at me.

"This place is always empty. We can stay here until tonight… When they all go off to sleep… There will be fewer guards around then… We'll be able to sneak by easier…" He said, I nodded slightly and then looked at the hallway one last time before I walked inside the room as well.

Oh my gosh…

There was a big bed in the corner, and some shelves on the walls, they were all empty. I ignored the fact that there was literally nothing but the furniture and jumped on the bed, face first.

"Oh my god! How can you not just love this place!" I said, hugging the bed.

He stared at me like I was being the weirdest pikmin ever. Okay, maybe I am the weirdest pikmin ever…

"What?" I asked, still smiling.

He sighed and sat on the bed, looking slightly mad.

"Well, do you really want to hear this?" He asked. I made myself get serious. And I slowly nodded.

Great, the story of his life.

"I remember waking up, and then… Well, I… I don't know what happened then… But, I guess it wasn't very long… Before the attack…" He began. And with a big gulp of air, he started talking again. "It was the cyans… They… They like violence… A lot like black pikmin… But worse… Anyway, they attacked my color… Whatever that was… They destroyed the leader… I don't remember who that leading man was, or what color… But he was important… They killed a lot of others… I lived, and one of them grabbed me up and took me away from my home… Wherever it was. Whatever it was. Then they knocked me out. I woke up in a cage. And when I called for help two cyans came over and unlocked the cage. I thought they were gonna let me go, because they were sorry about the things they did. And so I stepped out of the cage. Man was I wrong…" He stopped, and then started laughing, but it was filled with sadness and horror.

"Go on…" I urged.

"They pushed me to the ground, and the first one cracked a whip and hit me in the back. I'm pretty sure that it was bleeding. They ordered me to get up… I did as they said… And then they just pushed me back to the ground and whipped me again. I didn't get up the second time they ordered me to. And so I got two whips, before being pulled to my feet and shoved back in the cage and locked in again… Life was horrifying… I was scared of everybody… I met this white pikmin. He was mean… He teased me, and it just made life suck a whole lot worse… But even after all that teasing, I was horrified when they stabbed him to death. I was scared that they were going to do that to me… That life was going to end very shortly… But at the same time I envied the thought of death, the thought of never having to feel all this pain and torment again…" He started crying. "You know what's stupid? I still envy death!"

I totally underestimated his life… I thought that he had it easy… Wrong… I had it easy…

He continued on. "The next time they came, they had really sharp sticks, and I freaked. When they unlocked the door I bolted past them as fast as I could. I ran, faster than I ever thought I could. I was horrified, they were going to be chasing me down… It made me keep running…" His frown deepened. "I was so stupid… I didn't turn left or right when I noticed that things were getting hazy… And I ran smack right into it…" He stopped.

"Smack into what?" I asked, he stared at me.

"The mushroom…" He mumbled. "And then its antennae looked down at me. It looked confused. And it took a step back. I tried to use that as an opportunity to run, but then suddenly I was tackled to the ground… By purple… No… wait… Mushroom pikmin… And I was pinned down. The mushroom looked oddly happy, I don't know how… Maybe it was my imagination… I never expected them to have feelings… I just expected them to be like a zombie too…" He glared at the ground. "I woke up on the ground… And the first thing I noticed was that my throat was clogged. Clogged with stuff that I had no idea was… I stood up and stumbled around aimlessly, I had no idea where I was… Or where I was going… I tried to breathe, but my breaths came out as gasps. I tried coughing it up… And I ended up puking… I just couldn't get that awful taste out of my mouth… And then suddenly I was punched in the face… I fell to the ground and blacked out again… When I woke up again there she was… Blade… And she told me not to worry, that she was gonna help… And I believed her… I believed that she was gonna help me from my messed up life, and turn me back to normal…" He snorted. "But look at me! I'm still not normal! I've never been normal!" I frowned.

"Man, you've had it rough…" I mumbled. "If you were there to tell me what happened to you when I was normal, I probably would have been a whole lot more grateful…" I paused. "Reed says I'm stubborn…" I laughed. "Or I was stubborn…" I said. He smiled slightly.

"You still are…" He said. "But I don't know if it's gotten worse or better…"

"Me neither…" I laughed.

"Don't you ever wonder… what it would be like, if you were normal again? And your whole perspective of life was changed? If I could be normal again… Then… I don't know…" He said, staring at the door.

"Yeah… If I was normal again… I would probably be a whole lot happier… And… I…" I stopped, because, the truth was, we would never be normal again… Not in a million years…

"We still wouldn't be normal though… They would still know our past… And they wouldn't let it go… To them… We're still monsters…" He said. I frowned.

"I think we're still normal… Just on the inside… It's not on the outside… On the outside we seem like monsters… But on the inside… I'm still that yellow pikmin… And you're still whatever color you used to be…" I said, cracking a slight smile out of him.

"I guess, if you think of it that way…" He said.

Suddenly there was a slight knock on the door. It wasn't a usual knock; it was in a certain pattern.

He got up and walked over to the door, then opened it. Blade stood there, looking relieved. Reed stood next to her with a smirk on his face.

She hugged the other mushroom pikmin and sighed.

"You were right…" She said, turning to me. "They didn't even actually remember until I told them. And then they said that everything was fine. They captured it again…" She clamped her mouth shut. "Anyways, my room still has its stuff in it… But, you can't really go there… It's too crowded down on my hall…" She looked inside the room we were standing and frowned. "There's a reason nobody ever stays here anymore…" She said, pointing at the room.

"Why?" I asked, feeling a tiny bit uneasy. She pushed us all in there and closed the door. Then she looked at me with cold eyes.

"Pikmin get hurt here…" She said quietly. The other mushroom shrugged and looked at the floor.

"I've already heard the rumors…" He said. "But, I didn't get hurt…" He looked at me and shrugged again. "It's probably just a thing to spook everybody…" Blade looked at him and shook her head, smiling.

"No, it's not… Guess why?" She asked.

"I don't know…" I said, feeling slightly uneasy.

"Because I was one of the ones who got hurt…" She said, looking at her arm. It looked perfectly normal to me. "I had a huge bruise there for weeks…" She put her arm down. "It all started after somebody died…" She giggled. "Nobody ever even looks at the door anymore…" She took a deep breath and became serious. "It seems perfectly normal right now… But when you turn off all the lights, the room gets extremely cold. And if you don't leave right then, suddenly some part of your body starts to ache. I've seen some run out of this room with a bloody leg or stem… It's scary… I luckily decided to leave right when my arm started aching. But, I didn't know that it was _that_ bad… I came out of there and it was twisted at some odd angle. I pushed it back to where it looked normal, but it had a huge bruise for a long time…" She laughed slightly. "Funny how I'm talking about this room while I'm standing in it…"

Reed seemed a little nervous now. I rolled my eyes.

"Stupid ghost stories…" I said. And then looked around the room.

Nope, no unearthly things around here… Although everything being empty did make me feel disappointed.

Reed looked around the room in a different way though; he stared at everything like it contained some sort of monster hiding in it… Funny, because he was scared of monsters that don't exist… But he isn't scared of actual monsters standing right in front of him.

"Weird…" I mumbled, and then turned and sat on the bed. "But not weird enough to keep me from staying, at least for a little…" I said, staring at the floor. Blade frowned.

"Well, okay… But, if you stay… you can't for long… we have a way of knowing things… Even I don't get it…" She smiled. "You guys gonna be okay here? I think I'll go upstairs and look at my room… Been awhile…" She waved and shut the door behind her. Reed stayed in the room, but then after what looked like thinking things over he chased after her.

"Well, never knew somebody _died_ here…" I said, laughing, he shrugged.

"I was a little paranoid last time I was here… I was scared to death from that story… But when I turned the lights off, I didn't get hurt… We'll be fine… I promise…" He said. I stood up.

"Ghosty ghosty ghosty!" I called. He smiled slightly.

"Come out come out wherever you are…" He finished. When I turned and looked at him he was smiling… Like a full smile! I couldn't believe my eyes. Was I imagining things, or was he literally smiling?

"It's about night time…" He said, looking toward the window... I stared at him.

"Why didn't we climb through _that_ window?" I asked, he looked at me and laughed slightly, like the answer was so obvious, that it was funny. He pointed down out of the window, I looked down. "Oh…"

Right below the window was the door to enter the building… How stupid could I possibly be?

"Anyways… It'll be time for them to hit the hay… Very soon…" He said.

Just as he finished saying that there was shuffling through the halls, we stayed very quiet. And then as the last of them faded we stood up and slowly walked over to the door.

"Better be quiet…" He whispered, and then opened the door quietly. He peered down the halls left and right before pulling me out into the hallway and quietly closing the door behind us. "Now if I remember…" He mumbled to himself as he scanned the doors, going left.

He motioned for me to follow as he started going down the stairs. I hesitated before following.

We came into another hallway, but this one was wider. And awards and pictures of pikmin who I had no idea were hung on the walls. He scanned the doors before stopping in front of one labeled 'Isolation chambers KEEP OUT!' He hesitated before pulling the knob and opening it.

We stepped inside the room. And I gaped.

There were random creatures and monsters that I had no idea even existed. There was a spotted beast with many rows of fangs behind glass in the first one I saw. A label was on the bottom of the glass. It read 'RARE BULBORB HIGHLY DANGEROUS' and went into descriptions below that.

_Up. Ahead._

The other mushroom pikmin jumped, and he looked at me worriedly.

"Oh god… I never expected it to start _telling me where the freak it is and expecting me to come over there…_" He said, looking terrified.

_Need… You._

"Yeah, yeah…" He said, starting to walk over, rolling his eyes. "But no possessing… You did that last time…" I ignored the urge to start laughing…

_That's… life…_

"What? Possessing? No, life is about living, not being zombies..." He looked at me. "Man, its weak… If it was any bit stronger, we would totally be having seizures on the ground right now." He looked like he was actually enjoying this slightly, I snorted.

"Enjoy this?" I asked sarcastically, he grinned.

"A little bit…" He said.

We passed lots of monsters that looked like they could rip you to shreds in minutes before stopping in front of the one labeled 'PUFFSTOOL DO NOT GET TOO CLOSE TO GLASS HIGHLY DANGEROUS' I ignored the words and put my face to the glass.

There was a faint light in there… But the clouds that filled the cage thing were so thick I couldn't see its body.

"Geez, take all your anger out yet?" I asked. Squinting in the clouds, movement was seen, but only the tiniest bit.

_Get me out of this hell hole…_

The other mushroom pikmin put his face to the glass as well.

"You're so weak… I can't believe it…" He said.

_I need you to get me out of here… And back to the other mushroom pikmin… My mushroom pikmin… You both are not mine… But you will still help me… Because I am the father of your creator…_

"Whoa… Hold on… you're that one that spored me's dad?" The other asked, staring in disbelief.

_Yes…_

"Wait, the way you said it made it sound like we both got spored by the same one…" I said, utter shock filled me. These things had family? Oh geez, I'm learning new things every day!

_You were…_

We both looked at each other and frowned.

"So you're stealing from your own children?" The other one asked, still staring at me.

_I overrule him…_

Suddenly a shriek filled the air. We both turned to the direction of the noise, it was a bird/snake thing with feet, and it shrieked because it hit the cement with its face. How stupid…

We turned back to the mushroom.

"They named you and said you were dangerous and stuffed you in a cage?" I asked.

_It's what they do to all living things that are different in some way…_

"Are you different from other mushrooms?" The other asked.

_A little…_

"How?" I asked.

_I'm far more powerful…_

"Then why aren't you possessing us?" I demanded.

Silence…

"If you're more powerful, why aren't you trying to control us?" I asked again.

_You don't understand our ways-_

"Well I should! You put me in the middle of this!" The other mushroom pikmin growled.

_It's been far too long… I'm fading… I need you to get me out of here… now…_

"Why? So you can go off possessing pikmin again?"

_Without me, the others will soon falter…_ _They will find out my death and all shall end…_

"Huh…?" I said, this mushroom's words were so confusing…

_All shall end, unless you save me…_

"Whatever…" I said, geez, these things had issues… They made themselves sound so important…

Suddenly we heard the door to the way we came open. We both looked at each other and had the urge to make a run for it.

_Go… I'll be fine for now… Hide in the storage room…_

"There are a lot of storage rooms…" I whispered as we ran farther down the room. Monsters snapped their jaws at us, but only hit glass. We came to a door labeled 'STORAGE ROOM' and hurried inside.

I quickly shut the door. It was pitch black, and I couldn't see anything. But suddenly there was a groan. I thought it came from the mushroom pikmin at first but it didn't sound like him. Although it sounded familiar.

"Who's in here?" I hissed. The voice answered back.

"Who are _you_?" The voice asked.

"Um… I don't have a name…"

"No name?"

"Eden?"

Suddenly the lights came on in the room and we blinked. The other mushroom pikmin had found the light switch. Eden was in the corner of the room clutching his stomach. But he had a smile on his face.

"And you brought a buddy too?" He said, looking over at the other.

"Oh my god… You're alive! But are you okay?" I said, he looked down at his chest.

"Nope, not okay…" He said, I frowned.

"Man, how did you get out of that alive? Um… I'm sorry I pulled the spear out… I thought you were dead and I needed to kill him…" I said, biting my lip.

"No worries… At least I'm alive, right?" I nodded, smiling. The other mushroom pikmin motioned for us to be quiet as footsteps passed by. They faded as quickly as they came.

"You know him?" He asked, pointing at Eden, I nodded.

"He died… Well, we thought he died…" I said. He looked over at Eden with a distrusting stare.

"Okay… But he has a hole in his stomach, for your information…" He said, and looked at the door. He looked like he was about to cry for a second, but it quickly faded away and he clutched the handle. "Shall we? Or will we sit here and…" He looked Eden over. "Talk with the guy with a hole in his stomach…"

I sighed. "His name is Eden, for your information… And he got stabbed with a spear…" I looked at him and rolled my eyes. "Seriously… Do you not feel even a little bad for him?"

"Nope…" He said, and opened the door. "Let's go save the mushroom… Before the world 'ends'…" He air quoted ends.

I looked at Eden. "Can you stand?" I asked, he laughed.

"How do you think I got here? Do you think I flew?" Eden said. I rolled my eyes, but couldn't help and smile.

"We're saving the world now… I guess…" I said. Eden smirked.

"First we're gathering food, now we're saving the world… Wow… Talk about changes…"

The other mushroom pikmin frowned at the word changes, so did I, making Eden stop talking and smirking.

"Sorry…" He mumbled, still seeming quite happy, and stood up.

Geez…

Scarlet blood covered his chest. And a big gash was dead in the center of his stomach. He stumbled sideways and then clutched his stomach.

I helped him stand upright. And then I stared at him worriedly.

What had he gotten himself into?

"I'm fine…" He said.

"Let's go…" The mushroom pikmin said from behind me, seeming quite defensive about something… Oh wait…

I remembered how he had been at first. He was so angry and rude… But, then his barrier broke not long after… And then I found out the truth… He was just a scared pikmin who didn't know where he belonged… Just like all of us… But he was keeping a barrier from everybody… Well, except for the pikmin he could trust…

"Hello? World to… Blank?" Eden said, waving his hand in front of my face. I blinked.

"We've got a mushroom to save… And him to babysit…" The mushroom pikmin said, crossing his arms, but I could see the glint of mockery in his eyes.

"Okay… Sorry…" I mumbled. And then we walked out of the… storage room… God, I wondered if there were any other ones…

Probably…

We stepped in front of the glass again, and Eden tensed.

_There's a way back there… Although there are a few guards that you should kill._

"Kill? No way! We'll just knock them out, and that's it!" I said. Eden looked at me like I was a loon.

I stumbled sideways, hit by a slap… Although it was only mental, it felt pretty real.

_They'll remember…_

"So? We'll be long gone!" I shot back. The other mushroom pikmin remained silent.

"How do we get there…?" He asked. Eden sighed.

"Why can't I be in your secret conversation…?" He asked.

_He's getting on my nerves…_

"He's on mine too, but how do we get there?" The mushroom pikmin asked.

_There's a door that leads to all these machines…They call it a control room… Back there is a confusing passage… Take left twice… There should be a door there that is locked… Of course, one of the guards has the keys… It should be easy… Behind the locked door is a hallway… I'll help you from there…_

"Whatever…" I mumbled. "Hey, why would the world end if you die?"

_We're more important than you think we are…_

"You're not that important… You just make yourself sound important…" The other pikmin said.

_Oh, we are important, you just won't believe us…_

"Then why are you so important?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"Hey, hold on… The _world will end_ if that thing dies…?" Eden asked.

_We bring balance to everything… You just don't realize it… We lessen the odds of pikmin gaining too much power… If pikmin gained more power, there would be a rapidly growing population… And that would mean that there would be less and less creatures in the world… Until they all went extinct… And you would go extinct as well…_

"Yeah yeah… But why would all the rest of the mushrooms die if you did?" I asked. Tapping my foot.

_There's something you need to know…_

"And what is it?" The other asked.

_I'm the king… I'm the one who keeps the others in check… If I die… They will soon falter in their steps… And then the world will slowly come to an end…_

"Do any other pikmin besides us know this?" I asked, leaning closer to the glass.

_A few… But some don't understand… Or have different thoughts on this… Some think that if all of us die… All their wishes shall be granted… And pikmin shall rule till the end of time… Approximately one week… At the most…_

"That sucks… Is that what the greens are trying to do?" I asked.

_Perhaps…_

"What about Blade…?" The other hissed, seeming quite angry now.

"Who's Blade?" Eden asked, I glared at him. And he shut his mouth.

_She knows about this, but she does not believe it…_

"How can we trust you? I mean, you're using pikmin for your own good…" I said.

_I'm not using you… I'm keeping the world in balance and harmony…_

Suddenly my mind flickered through things that I had no idea were. And it stopped on one alarming memory.

"And what about that alien…? It does the same thing… Why do you hate it so much?" I asked, barely above whisper.

_That damned alien has no right to crash on this planet and hurt us! It's not doing the same thing as I am! I'm making balance! It's making a disaster!_

"Or you just hate it because you're jealous…" I hissed.

_I am not jealous! I hate it because it's causing pikmin to multiply at such a fast rate it's scary! We'll all die with it around! _

Suddenly there was a lot of movement in the cage… And the air got a lot thicker.

"How so…?" The other asked, but he looked at me like I didn't know what I was talking about.

_It's making pikmin more powerful! And only to leave us here to all die! It's not helping, it's hurting!_

"Well you don't deserve any more honor than it does!" I snapped. But suddenly I was pushed to the ground by an invisible force. I gasped for breath.

_I make balance! _

"I… I'm sorry…" I choked out, and the force released me.

"This is weird… I don't trust anybody at the moment…" Eden said, wide eyed and staring at me in horror.

"We'll help you… Just leave us be!" The other said, walking over and pulling me to my feet, then storming toward the door.

I slowly followed him. Eden was close at my tail.

Why were we helping it? Why did I even think of coming here in the first place? Why was Eden hiding in that closet? Why did I have to get changed? Why does our greatest enemy have to be the one that keeps the world balanced? And most importantly…

Why do I care about the mushroom… When it was the one who ruined my life?

As we walked down the control room I had my head down and thought about all this. Of course, I knew I was supposed to be knocking out the guards and finding one with a key, but the questions loomed around me, and they wouldn't go away.

"Hey, did it tell you something really awful or something, because if it did, than it's not true… They lie…" Eden said, making me raise my head slightly and look at him. The other mushroom pikmin punched one of the guards in the face, and then laughed and dangled some keys in the air.

"Got the keys…" He said, staring at them, and shaking them in the air.

"No… it's just… You won't understand…" I put my head down again.

"Of course I'll understand…" Eden said, grinning. "I understand a lot of things… I'm not stupid…"

"If it dies, we all die too…" His face paled.

"Wait, all pikmin? Or just mushroom pikmin?"

"The world…"

"Why?"

I just shrugged. "It said balance… And the leader does the opposite… It makes us multiply at a very fast rate… And then it says that we'll be too powerful…" I said.

"Huh…" He said, and then looked ahead, his hands shook. And his eyes were wide.

We unlocked the door that was locked.

Then we came into the long hallway, and I knew this was it.

_Go left…_

We continued to walk until we came to a door labeled 'PUFFSTOOL, DO NOT OPEN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE' We walked up to it and stared at the door.

_Open it…_

"Eden, step far back…" I said.

"Why-

"Just do it!" I snapped. He nodded and quickly stepped far back. I felt guilty for yelling at him, but it soon faded as the click sound was heard and smoke came tumbling out.

"There, now you can get the rest of the way out…" I was about to say, but then when it stepped out I sucked in those words.

It was so pale… Its normal bright red color was a dull pink… And the yellow was a grayish white color. The orbs on its antennae were flickering. I stared at it and almost fainted.

Eden did it for me…

I didn't look at Eden to ask if he was okay, I was stuck staring at it as it limped out of there.

"W-W…" I couldn't put a sentence together, my head was spinning. I couldn't think correctly.

"G-Get out of o-our h-heads… W-We s-saved y-you…" The other mushroom pikmin said, standing stiff, his mushroom twitched crazily.

Suddenly I was released, and I fell to my knees.

"Just because you can do that doesn't mean you should!" I cried, tears streaking down my face.

_It's an instinct… A huge urge that I can barely control…_

"Well stop!" I yelled.

_I said that I can barely control it…_

There was a light pull and then I was completely free.

_I can get out of here the rest of the way… Unless you plan on working for me the rest of your puny lives, I advise you leave…_

I stumbled back, not taking my eyes from it for a second, afraid it might do something unexpected… Or something expected… Like possessing me…

"Come on…" The other hissed and then grabbed my arm as we hurried to the door.

"Wait… Eden." I said, but he was already opening his eyes and sitting up.

"What-

He stopped and stared, wide-eyed at the mushroom as it started walking forward.

Or, to be more descriptive… Stumbling…

It hit the wall and twitched ever so slightly.

"Are you sure…" I started to say, but shut my mouth and grabbed Eden's arm and we hauled our butts out of there as a big cloud came pouring down.

I was glad Eden was running full speed, or he might have been spored… Who knows how well that would play out…

We made our way out of there, and then the other mushroom pikmin stifled a sob.

"What's wrong?" I asked, stupidly… A lot of things were wrong…

"This is all so stupid! We will never be able to make it with our heads filled with _this_ information! The world could end right now for all we know!" He cried.

_No… I'm fine now…_

"How are you fine now? A second ago you couldn't even _walk_ properly!" I said.

_Because… Oh, I guess the knocking the guards out part was a pretty good thing… Although it didn't really matter if they were dead or alive…_

"Wait… You can spore things… That are _dead too?_" We both asked at the same time.

_They've still got a brain… So of course I could… Although they're useless anywhere else… They'd just be dead…_

"So if I died, you could still possess me?" I asked.

_Of course…_

"Guys, let's go…" Eden said. We quickly began to head out again.

When we made it out of the control room we immediately ran up the stairs… Eden was behind us this time.

Instead of heading into our room, we went up a second flight of stairs. The other mushroom pikmin hurried down the hall, stopped at a door, and barged in.

Blade almost screamed, but she sucked in her breath and held it.

"What…? You guys aren't supposed to be up-

"We're not even supposed to _be _here…" He snapped, and then calmed himself. "We need to go… Now." Her face was a question mark.

"Why?"

"Because the mushroom got out…" I said. "We just know… We can feel it… It's gotten out and it has a bunch of the guards with it…"

She froze, her jaw tightening, and then she looked over at Reed.

"We'll finish our conversation some other time… But for now, we have to get out of here before they end up…" She looked up at us. "Brainwashed…"

I hated the way that everybody always thought of one thing about us… That we hate the stupid alien and that we follow somebody else that they think is evil and just wants to possess us…

And today I saw a new side of it…

A side that nobody else knows…

A side that doesn't want to possess… A side that would actually fight its own instinct…

A side that I thought didn't even exist…

A side that… Actually cared…

"Hey, are you okay?" Blade said, waving a hand in front of my face. I blinked and looked at her.

"Um… Yeah… Sorry…" I mumbled, and then she pushed me to the side.

Reed stared at me, and then frowned.

"No matter what anybody tells me, I'll never think of you as evil…" He whispered to me, I stared at him.

"Yeah, well, you're wrong… They're right…" I turned away from him and started following Blade.

We walked down the hall in a big rush. Blade took a glance at Eden.

"Who's that guy? Because he has a big-

"His name is Eden, and he kinda got stabbed because of me…" I said. Eden looked at me.

"It wasn't you're fault! It was the black pikmin's fault!" He said. I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever…"

"Hey… You saved me… I would be dead if it wasn't for you…"

"Yeah but-

"It wasn't your fault…"

Suddenly it was there… At least, in my head… And I could feel it trying to hack the code and get through…

I stopped walking and brought full attention to it.

You said you wouldn't do that!

_Yeah, well I lied…_

Well, you lie a lot… I don't believe anything you told me before…

_Well, then don't… But I'll make you… It's easy… _

I'm not going to ever listen to you… I won't ever come to you… Not in my life… And I'm never going to help you again!

Blade turned to me, as well as the rest. The first thing I noticed was the other mushroom pikmin seemed fine.

Why me? Why aren't you in his head too…?

_Because you're weaker than him…_

I am not weak!

_Oh really?_

"I'm NOT!" I screamed, they all took a step back, the other mushroom pikmin grabbed my shoulders, looking very worried.

"What is it saying..? And for the love of god… Why am I not hearing it either?" He asked.

"Because…"

_Say it…_

No…

_Yes…_

"Because… I'm weak…" I confessed. He stared at me with the eyes that always made me want to turn away…

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"I'm WEAK! That's what I mean! I'm just a puny little pikmin… I'm vulnerable…" I cried.

_It's true…_

"I don't trust you…"

_Not right now… But I'm going to get that head of yours straight… Being with me is the only way to survive in this world._

"Backstabber…"

_You're the backstabber._

"HOW AM I THE BACKSTABBER?"

_Do you believe the word destiny..?_

Yes…

_Well, you were born… To follow me… It's your destiny…_

The whole world started to spin… I luckily had the other mushroom pikmin for support… I fell forward, and he caught me.

"Don't believe it… I know that you want to… I know that what it said before was true… But it's only lying to get you over there…" The other said. "You're not weak until you give up…"

_Actually… I use the truth… The dirty truth that nobody wants to hear… The truth… Can be a weapon too…_

I didn't realize those words were coming out of my own mouth until the others covered their mouths in horror.

"Oh my god… That's just creepy…" Blade said, stepping back.

"We have to get out of here…" I said, looking up at him, although he looked horrified, he nodded.

"Hey! What are they doing here? They're not supposed to be here! Get the guards!" Somebody said, appearing from a random door, looking scared, yet rubbing his eyes with sleep.

"The guards… Are dead…" I whispered, making him suck in his breath, as well as Blade.

"How do you know that…?" She said. I looked at her with sad eyes.

"Because… I know they are… You probably know why I know…" I said, she narrowed her eyes.

"They're not dead…" She said.

"I know, but… Technically they are…" I said. She rolled her eyes.

"We have to get out of here!" Reed said, snapping us all out of our argument.

"Right, if we stay here any longer we'll probably…" Blade paused. "You know…"

We started running, following Blade as she zipped down stairs, halls, corridors… until we got to the door…

When we got through I slammed it shut.

"We're NEVER going back…" I said, staring at them all, suddenly very angry at everybody. "NEVER!"

They only nodded.

Then I started walking away, they soon followed.

"What's wrong…?" Reed asked.

"What do you THINK is wrong? This is my entire fault!" I said, he sighed.

"No it's not… But I don't think you'll ever believe me… You think _everything_ is your fault."

"Everything _is_ my fault…" I said. He rolled his eyes.

"No it's not…" He said, and then frowned. "Blade doesn't trust you…" He whispered.

"Why?"

"Because you… Are… you…" He said. I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever…"

The thoughts in my head were harsh and angry… But I ignored them, they were telling the truth… Yes… But… That didn't mean I would listen to them…

I wondered what it would be like if I was normal again, nothing came up…

Maybe… I would never be normal again…

I looked up at the sky…

And then suddenly a large gust of wind knocked us all back… We quickly got up and started running.

I didn't care about what other pikmin thought… I only cared about the fact that it was getting dangerous outside…

We needed to find shelter…

**OMG THIS IS SO LONG THAT I THINK I'm GONNA DIE! OMG THE PUFFSTOOL WAS BEING SO CREEPY! OMG A LOT OF THINGS!**

**Ha, I bet you don't know what will happen next… ;) Ha! You'll be so happy… Oops… I'm not gonna tell you anything else… BUT OMG YOU'LL BE HAPPY!**

**Enjoy chapter 6, the one that will probably be a lot shorter than this one, which is about 30 pages long… **

**Hey, I counted the pages! Cool!**


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